A Question of Origins: Xmen Kenshin and Back to t
by PavMatt
Summary: Wolverine tries to identify his Origin by trying to find out who this unstoppable warrior is from the Meiji era. Nightcrawler and Wolverine embark on an incredible journey to find Kenshin with the help of Doc Brown and Marty McFly.
1. Chapter 1

A Question of Origins: Chapter One

Tucked away in a high class rural area is Professor Xavier's school for the gifted; a place where children and adults who were born with amazing abilities learn to use and manage these abilities for the good of mutant and human kind. One Xavier's best and most highly skilled fantastic and wonderful awesome pupil is Kurt Wagner who is also known as the Amazing Nightcrawler, a name given to him when he joined the circus as a youngster in Germany. A man of God who is highly skilled in acrobatics and swordsmanship is also able to Teleport where ever he wants, as long as he can see where he is going. One of the lesser attractive traits of being a mutant: Nightcrawler's skin is completely blue, his eyes are yellow, he has a tail, pointed ears, and only six toes and fingers; These traits which follow more of the line of his parents rather an actual mutation.

Nightcrawler has seen his fair share of action and is currently talking with an old friend Logan, also known as Wolverine, who is having some trouble remembering who he is, or rather, who he used to be. Wolverine has the ability to heal his entire body at an incredibly fast rate. Gashes and punctures are back to normal in mere seconds. For this reason, Weapon X, a name formerly given to Wolverine by an old Government agency, was a perfect subject to be given adamantium bones and claws. Razor sharp to the touch, Wolverine is considered a beast in a man's body. His short temper will send this killing force into a berserker rage like you have never seen. Bodies being torn limb from limb. Men subjected to the most brutal of ends. As of late however, Wolverine has been able to control his temper. With his new found friendships at Xavier's school, Wolverine has found a reason to live.

Wolverine, for whatever reason, can't remember where he came from or who he used to be, and with his healing factor there is no telling how old Wolverine could actually be. Recently Wolverine came across some old Japanese folklore during their civil war time discussing a great hero would could not get hurt and would stand the battlefield for hours on end and walk away unscathed.

"Mein Got! Do you really think this could be you Logan?" asked Nightcrawler.

"I dunno Elf. I just can't imagine there being two of me. Even if it's not me, maybe the guy is still alive! Maybe he knows what happened to me," replied Wolverine.

"That actually sounds like a really good idea. What do you say? Another adventure for two old friends?" Nightcrawler held his hand out for a shake.

"I've got nothing else to do and nowhere else to go." Wolverine shrugged and grabbed Nightcrawler's hand

The two give a hard and hefty shake. "Would have like a little bit more enthusiasm than that, but I'll take it!"

Wolverine and Nightcrawler head to Tokyo to find out who this ancient Japanese War Hero is. Through a lot of questioning and interrogation the two X-Men find themselves outside of an older town looking in. As they search the town for clues Nightcrawler notices a poster on a wall.

"Hey Logan! Check this out," Exclaimed Nightcrawler.

"A Tourney? I don't think these folks are ready for me." Logan starts to turn away.

"It could give us a chance to rest a bit, maybe catche some good action," said Nightcrawler quietly urging the rabid mutant to catch some good ol' samurai training.

A local walks in between the two and announces his presence, only his words are spoken in Japanese, falling on deaf ears.

"He says you two wouldn't be interested. You would only see foes much stronger than yourself anyway. A waste of time really. What a pity…" A gentleman following the rather large competitor translated for his friend.

"Did he really say all of that in such a short time?" Nightcrawler asked.

The gentleman makes another remark and starts to walk away again. Wolverine reaches out his arm and gives him a push. The giant turns and begins to laugh as he gives the 5'8" Wolverine a once over. The Giant, a towering 7 feet tall and definitely eclipsing the three hundred pound mark began to inch his way back to Wolverine.

"Whats it to ya bub?" Wolverine began to let his claws do the rest of the talking as he slowly let them slide out between his knuckles.

With what would usually send most running only made this Mammoth sized man laugh even harder. He began to yell again in his native tongue, only infuriating Wolverine even more.

"He says your tiny little knives couldn't hope to get the butter across a bun let alone help you in a fight against me." The translator said, again helping the fellow X-Men understand this giant a little better.

"You probably shouldn't do that friend" said Nightcrawler urging the Giant to lay off, "Logan is a good hearted person, but he is strong and very stubborn."

"Shut it Elf" exerted Wolverine, "Let him dig his own grave."

Nightcrawler edges closer to Wolverine and begins to whisper, "we didn't come here for this Logan. Let them win this, we have work to do."

"It will do you two no good anyway, this man has already won the tournament. Once the rest of the city found out he had entered the contest all competitors disqualified themselves or quit." The translator relayed trying to dismay the combatants.

"See Elf, it ain't gonna be that long of a wait anyway." Wolverine sheathed his claws and began to walk over to the tournament grounds. He snatches the piece of paper from Nightcrawler, "where do I sign up?"

The tournament stadium has very few people attending. Most had already gone once they learned all of the challengers had backed out of the contest. Just a few fans of the Giant remained and were welcome to see anyone brave enough to enter come out with a lesson learned. Wolverine came out in just a white tank and blue jeans. His opponent was in knee high boots and a leotard (much like many professional wrestlers). A bell rang and both men didn't move an inch. They obviously were hoping the other would move first. The Giant began to laugh and chat in Japanese, Wolverine looked to the translator for just that: "The Giant wishes you to attack first. He would like to get this finished a bit sooner than later and his special move will be countering whatever punch you throw at him. You will lose regardless tiny man, please make this quick for all our sakes." Nightcrawler looks over at the translator again. "Okay, so I added that last part. Nightcrawler begins to chuckle.

Wolverine decided to let The Giant know how he feels. "I ain't gonna wait all night either, me and the blue guy have business to attend to." The Giant just raised his hand and beckoned Logan to begin his attack. "You asked for it bub!" Logan, giving the Giant what he wants, attacks first and began his run at the large man. With one fatal swipe the Giant grab Wolverine by the arm and whipped his across the battleground. The crowd erupts with celebration and begins to chant "Giant"…in Japanese. The translator sits up and smiles. He gives a glance over at Nightcrawler. The translator is surprised to see Nightcrawler hasn't moved a muscle nor does he looked worried. The Translator grits his teeth and looks back onto the arena's floor. A cloud of smoke starts to dissipate and a shadowy figure begins to stand up straight. The translator tries to scream over the excited crowd for the Giant to turn around.

Just as Wolverine began to regain his consciousness he staggers back out to the middle of the arena. He gives his head a little shake and the entire crowd is silent at once. Wolverine takes a new battle stance and readies himself for another attack. The Giant turns to see his Wolverine barely out of breath.

"How this possible?" asks the Giant.

"So, you do speak English. Pretty badly, but you speak it." Wolverine said, only temporarily surprised. "Hows about you and I do the old switcheroo: you come at me and I try to kill you?"

The seven foot beast realizes he still has a fight to finish and starts to snarl and growl at Wolverine. He kicks his foot back like a bull and begins to charge at Wolverine and just before the beast can hit his target Wolverine ducks out of the way to avoid the attack.

Nightcrawler inches up from his seat, "Oh no…"

Nightcrawler's neighbor in the stands, the Translator, hears this and begins to wonder what might happen. "Watch out", he screams, "Something bad is about to happen!"

The Giant charges again. Wolverine squats, ready for the attack he prepares for a jump. The beast lets his flail to hopefully catch Wolverine with a lucky one, but lets his guard down near his neck. Wolverine dodges his first swipe and then the second. Using the Giant's girth, Wolverine kicks off his opponent and goes straight for the jugular.

"Christ!" The translator screams as he watches his friend get attacked. He looks to his right and doesn't see the strange blue man that had been sitting next to him for the entire battle. He looks all around and doesn't see Nightcrawler. The crowd gives a sudden gasp of amazement which forces the translator to turn his head to see what he missed. The Giant, gripping his throat, is fine; barely a scratch on his neck. A puff of blue and pink smoke clears in the corner of the arena. Clutching Wolverine, Nightcrawler lands on the arena floor and lets his friend go. Wolverine finishes his slice on thin air and turns to looks at Nightcrawler.

"You know he deserved this Nighty! You know he's done something bad somewhere." Wolverine began to scream.

"Even if that was true, it's not for you to decide. You'll thank me later," replied Nightcrawler.

"AH SHIT!" Wolverine begins to walk away from the stadium. The Giant sits up and decides that since he isn't dead, he ought to crush his challenger for embarrassing him. He begins his charge towards Wolverine.

"LOGAN!-…ah never mind" said Nightcrawler. Nightcrawler picks up a two by four and teleports again. Three stiff strikes to the Giant's melon and the crowd: silenced again. The Giant tries to get up one last time before he is stopped by a man who claims to be his trainer.

"Shigeru, I taught you better than that!" announced the stranger.

"I'm sorry master, I won't fail next time" apologized the Giant.

"I don't care about that. You lost and yet you continued to attack your opponent! You know what we teach at my Dojo is nothing like what you are practicing. I hate to say it Shigeru, but I am demoting you to First Class." The older man began to walk towards Nightcrawler and Wolverine.

"Are you alright young man?" asked the elder.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Wolverine spat out, "Why don't you tell that overgrown bag of meat over there not to be so cocky next time."

"Maybe he ought to watch his tongue next time sir. You can never tell who could be walking around town", Nightcrawler began to explain.

"Well, you must understand warriors; he is but only a child. I know his size can be deceiving, but he is only fourteen." The puzzling old man continued, "he has been training his hot head at my dojo for ten years now and for some reason, he's been growing three times the speed a normal boy his age. He is a descendant of one of the OniWaBan after all, Hyottoko."

"Gonna be honest with ya wrinkles, that means nothing to me and my buddy here." Wolverine said with a grin.

"Ah, you two must not be from around here. My name is Shiro, a descendant of Yahiko Myojin. I run the only dojo left in town. We don't get many applicants to learn the ways of the sword anymore, but after the great battles fought by our trainers; we have become quite the tourist spot. We have plenty of souvenirs on sale if you want to take a look."

Wolverine replies confidently, "No thanks 'Shirto', we've got some work to do."

"Oh," retorts Shiro, "anything I can help you out with?"

"Well, maybe…we were looking for the Kamiya Kasshin-ryū. It was a kendo school during the Meiji era. It housed some of the greatest fighters of that generation," Nightcrawler said, keeping his fingers crossed.

"Ah, yes, I know what you speak of, many generations there after too."

Wolverine surprised, "you know it?"

"Why yes, of course. It is where I live and sleep! My home and my dojo!"

The three gentlemen all walk together down a road that is sure to have seen its fair share of construction. With such rich history found on every brick of every building it was hard not to stop at every corner and inquire about each and every step.

"Shiro, the man we are looking for was a great warrior years ago," Nightcrawler said, hoping to give an early hint to the master of the dojo.

Shiro replied with "I may need a little bit more than that."

"Well, let me explain. Did you happen to catch the battle today between my companion and your Giant?" asked Nightcrawler.

"Yes, of course. Your friend fought valiantly!" Wolverine, overhearing the discussion about his earlier fight continues to look around Shiro's kitchen.

"Have any beer," inquired Wolverine.

"Yes, a special Japanese recipe passed down through generation of skilled laborers all the way back from…" Shiro is interrupted.

"Yeah, don't care. Where's the booze?"

"The tiny drawer on the left hand side: I hide it in there to keep away all of the wandering hands of youngsters."

Wolverine snaps the bottle open and begins to chug down his golden beverage. He plops himself next to his blue friend and leans forward hoping to hear something interesting.

"I was hoping you noticed Shiro that Wolverine has barely been hurt," Nightcrawler said trying to get back on topic.

"Well, I had, but until now, wasn't really ready to ask 'how'," said Shiro.

"It's probably less hard for you to believe from me, since I'm blue…but Logan and I…we are mutants."

"I guess I could have guessed that…"

Nightcrawler already prepared to hear this, continued, "Wolverine's mutant abilities allow him to heal his body at an incalculable rate. His body is constantly healing. That is how he was actually able to get this adamantium skeleton placed throughout his body. Only a man with his strength and ability could ever withstand such punishment. What this also means is that it is nearly impossible to tell how old Logan truly is."

"And I suppose finding this hardened warrior will help you find out where you friend has come from," said Shiro, starting to understand.

"If the guy isn't me to begin with," Wolverine said polishing off his beer.

"This warrior would have to be absolutely unbeatable to have the sort of record I assume you dealing with Logan," Shiro continues while getting up from his chair.

"Undefeated bub."

"Do you have someone in mind sir?" Nightcrawler asked while getting up to follow this helpful companion.

"I do, but I am not sure this is going to help you in any way. Himura Kenshin, the Battosai and man I speak of, was in a great battle many, many years ago. He fought bravely and courageously."

Wolverine speaks up "and the problem?"

"His body, it was never found. After one of his battles Ruroni Kenshin, another one of his aliases, vanished off of the face of the earth. He was given an empty grave to lie in the garden. It's one of our tourist hot spots. He lies with his one true love and former master of this dojo, Kamiya Kaoru. From the stories I'm told, she went weeks without a single word from her mouth. She just laid there and began to slowly pass. She died of a broken heart. Another of the stronger warriors, Sagara Sanosuke, left around that time too. He went off to fight a very evil man named Shishio Makoto. Shishio was a terrible man that tore through our lands like a knife through butter. If it weren't for the heroics of Saitō Hajime and the third unit of the Shinsengumi we might not be having this conversation right now. They traded their swords for guns and Shishio was no match for that stealthy bunch. After Kaoru passed she entrusted the Dojo to my great, great, great grandfather Yahiko. After it being passed down generation to generation I carry its traditions and stories now."

"But you did say that his Kenshin character was never found?" Nightcrawler keeping a sense of hope that his information is relevant.

"Yes, but what you are suggesting it's…its practically ludicrous: Kenshin, a mutant?" Shiro was still trying to wrap his mind around the idea his new friends had put before him. "I just can't see it. If it were true, that would wipe out decades of stories and beliefs. People would not look at Kenshin in the same light anymore. If that were true…I'd lose my BUSINESS!" The old man started to cry, kick and scream.

"Hey, Shiro, we're not trying to destroy this wonderful tourist spot. We just want some answers for my friend is all. We aren't looking to start any trouble for anybody." Nightcrawler still trying to calm the old man looks to Wolverine. He nods to get Wolverine to do something. Wolverine looks behind him and sees a vase. He picks it up and smashes the old man on the head with it.

"What are you doing?" Nightcrawler said with the loudest whisper he could muster.

"I thought you wanted me to shut him up."

"Well yes, but not like that Logan, I was thinking more like a pat on the back."

"Maybe he won't remember what happened when he wakes up," Wolverine said trying to get Nightcrawler's hopes up.

Footsteps are heard outside of the door. Voices are speaking outside of the door. The voices turn into knocking.

Nightcrawler, a little frantic, "What should we do?"

Wolverine, shocked, "Seriously?"

"Oh, right…" Nightcrawler grabs hold of Wolverine. The men outside of the doors finally kick it in only to find the old man and a puff of blue and pink smoke.

Shiro is helped back to his feet, "I have no idea what happened…but I have a fantastic idea for villains in my next Kenshin story."

In a split second Nightcrawler and Wolverine are teleported to a nearby alley.

"Not bad Elf, you've discovered an entirely new scent to burn into my nostrils," complained Wolverine.

Nightcrawler taking a glance at his surroundings, "it must be the pig pens across the way."

The two heroes continue down their mysterious path only to be interrupted by a familiar and friendly voice. Its Professor Charles Xavier. The Professor, while not present, is able to speak telepathically to Nightcrawler and Wolverine through his Mutated mental abilities of an over-produced brain function.

"So what are the next move gentlemen," asked the Professor.

"Honestly boss, I've got no clue," Wolverine relayed back.

"Nightcrawler?"

"Well, we could do so more research here Professor, but I don't know how much use that will be to us. If this story leads us to finding out that Wolverine is Kenshin, we could find ourselves in a long, useless, goose-chase."

"I agree Nightcrawler. I am going to have you meet up with an old Doctor friend of mine. His methods are a bit unorthodox, but I'm sure he can help you two. Travel to 1646 Riverside Drive, in Hill Valley California."

"At least we aren't flying all the way back to New York," a relieved Wolverine expressed.

"The residence is rumored to have burnt down a few years back, so the home should look fairly new."

"Thanks Professor, we'll check it out. The name of the Doctor we are looking for?"

"Brown, Doctor Brown."


	2. Chapter 2

A Question of Origin: Chapter Two

Nightcrawler and Wolverine pull up in a cab in front of Doctor Brown's home. They look over at the mailbox and see hundreds of letters stuffed into it. All of the lights are off at the home except for one light barely visible at the back of the garage.

"Looks like no one is home" said Nightcrawler, feeling a little puzzled since this was advice from Xavier.

"Well, ain't gonna hurt to ring the doorbell."

Wolverine and Nightcrawler walk up to what seems to be an abandoned home. They give a good wrap onto the front door.

"How long do we wait?" asked Nightcrawler.

"Let's try: Not at all." Wolverine gave his reply and then shoved one of his claws into the door unbarring the lock and releasing the door. "Why don't we take a peak?"

"Vas is good Wolverine. Let's still be mindful that this is a man who is friends with Xavier. We should try to respect his property and not forget that we just broke into the man's house."

"Whatever Nighty, just keep quiet and maybe we can find what we need."

Wolverine and Nightcrawler continue their tour around the home, flipping papers, searching through cabinets, and leaving nothing unturned. Nightcrawler finds many old news articles from the 80's declaring "Doc Brown" a lunatic. There were even older newspaper articles from the Old West declaring the same thing. The pictures of the two different "Doc Browns" were eerily similar. The two meet back up in the middle of the house.

"Well…nothing here Elf, what do you suppose we do know?" asked Wolverine.

"I don't know. It looks like there may have been a struggle. From what I found this guy must be a complete whack-job." Nightcrawler points over to the newspapers he perused through.

"Then I guess havin' the Professor in company makes sense for this guy," joked Wolverine.

A sudden crash from the outside helps the X-Men give chase. The light from the garage out back may mean more than they thought. Tearing through the house Nightcrawler notices clock after clock on every wall. Nightcrawler began to wonder what sort of Doctorate this gentleman had received. \

Wolverine blew through the back door and Nightcrawler decided it was best not to make another hole. Just like that, Nightcrawler disappeared only to reappear directly in front of Wolverine at the garage.

"Tisk tisk, all of that metal on your bones must be slowing you down." Quipped Nightcrawler.

"Can it Elf! We ain't alone," whispered Wolverine, "Whoever took this Doc Brown guy is still around."

Wolverine looked to his right again to see that Nightcrawler had teleported again. Wolverine could hear the door unhinge from the other side. He took a peek inside to see the familiar yellow eyes staring back. Wolverine stealthily crept into the garage as Nightcrawler teleported to the roof of the building. A very large garage with plenty to hide behind, Wolverine continued to sneak around looking for whoever was left. Metal and plastics continued to hit the floor of the garage. Whoever was still here was searching for something. Wolverine took a look up at Nightcrawler, who at the same time made a motion to the individual in the garage. Wolverine gave a quick nod to Nightcrawler and immediately sprang into action. Jumping into the air and screaming Wolverine latched onto the individual. He pulled him down to ground.

"The Libyans! The Libyans! They've come back!" screamed the captive, "Marty! Get my gun and help me out!"

Another door in the back opened and someone who was hiding in the garage went through the back door only to cause Nightcrawler to go chasing after him. A second later Nightcrawler has the person back in front of himself and Wolverine in the middle of the garage.

"Hey, come on!" The smaller of the two captives began to yell while Nightcrawler grabbed hold of him, "What's goin' on here? What gives?"

"Don't tell them anything Marty," the other responded with, "no matter what happens they can't take our dignity!"

Nightcrawler, getting increasingly aggravated by the length of this process, asked the gentlemen his first probing question, "Where is Doctor Brown?"

"Nothing Marty! Now more than ever!"

"No problem Doc…I, I mean Don, …Donald" replied the man called Marty.

"Let em go Nighty, that's him," said Wolverine after using his heightened sense of smell to sniff out the Doctor.

"Great Scott! You two are mutants! You must have obtained a rare sort of mutated sensory system," exclaimed the good doctor, "and you…must be blue."

"Doc, you gave yourself away man," Marty said while rolling his eyes.

"Oh, right Marty… well…"

"Not very good at lyin mein freund," Nightcrawler said to Marty.

"Well, you're not very good at being, acting, or looking normal, so…" Marty said, throwing back some harsh compliments.

"I'm beginning to think these aren't the Libyans," said Doc looking over his captors.

"We know Charles Xavier, an old friend of yours," began Nightcrawler, "he sent us here to meet you. We need help with something, but I feel a little weird asking for your help."

Doc's thoughts began to spin, he tilted his head back, "Ah, right, Professor X. How is the old fool?"

"You better watch it bub, close friend of mine too." Wolverine warned while letting his claws slip out from between his knuckles.

"No, no, no, you misunderstand me. He is an old friend, we just used to tease each other back in the day," assured Doc.

"It's okay Doctor, my freund here just gets a little short tempered with folks," Nightcrawler now assuring Doc Brown, "He means well."

"Yeah, he comes fully equipped with measuring sticks for that temper too," Marty said gesturing towards the claws.

"Good God, man, or mutant, how the hell did you gets those?" asked Doc.

Wolverine retracted his claws to give Doc Brown a chance to witness his hands heal instantly from the small protrusions from his skin.

"Fascinating," Doc Brown's jaw dropped as those words fell with it, "I was always jealous of your Professor for picking the field of science he began to test with."

"He didn't exactly get a chance to choose whether or not he would be a part of the experiment bub," Wolverine said, again showing his short temper.

"Hey, listen guys, we weren't exactly just sitting around doing nothing here," said Marty, now showing his own frustration.

"Ah, right! Well, we were hoping to…" Nightcrawler tried to begin.

"NO! Wait! I've just updated one of my oldest inventions," Doc said while looking through piles of old machinery. He popped a suction cup to Wolverine's head and a headpiece connecting to that device to his own head. "Now just relax and think about why you're here!"

"Doc, come on. That thing hasn't worked for years," Marty revealed.

"Enough Marty, let my machine do it's magic!"

"Fine, but I'm not gonna be the one scraping you off the floor when it backfires."

"That's why I added this," Doc puts a mouth guard in his mouth which he attached to the apparatus, "now you two are here to…sell me a magazine subscription!" Doc looks over at Marty and winks, "just kidding. You two are here to…" Doc closes his eyes for a moment and then slowly begins to open them, "to go back to the past?"

"Precisely!" cried Nightcrawler, "what an amazing machine!"

"Wow, that thing never works," a shocked Marty muttered.

"Another Red Letter Day for Science! Unfortunately gentlemen, I can't help you. Now, it was nice meeting you too, but Marty and I have a lot of work to do," Doc said pushing the two mutants to the door, "so goodbye."

Wolverine grabbed Doc's arm and began to force himself back into the room. "Don't think so bub. We came a long way!"

"Bub…bub, what is this word bub?" Doc asked, "Sounds more like a sound a baby would make."

"Look, fellas, guys, boys, Doc doesn't do that anymore. He put the machine out of commission. It's just too much trouble."

"So there is a machine?" Nightcrawler asked, peering around the garage.

"Marty! Enough!" howled Doc.

"Look Doc, if you come with us, it would be a chance to see a world none of us could really ever imagine was like," Nightcrawler said trying to convince Doc and maybe Marty.

"Gentlemen, I am more than aware of the power of my own machine," replied Doc.

"Well, we're not just asking to go to the past; we want to go to Japan as well." Nightcrawler added still trying to push Doc.

"And, if I do this, and I do mean "if", what do I get out of it?" Doc continues, "this machine has been nothing but trouble and I don't think I'm young enough to deal with it."

Wolverine, starting to lose his patience looks at Nightcrawler and walks him to the side of the room. "Nighty, we can always try to talk to Cable or Bishop. I know those two aren't the most reliable of X-Men, but right now it doesn't look like this old guy wants to help us."

Nightcrawler looks down at the ground searching his own thoughts for an answer. His eyes catch some of the older projects that Doc Brown has been working on. "How long have you been friends with Xavier, Doc?"

"About fifteen years. Don't worry Blue man;" Doc said, "you aren't going to guilt me into helping you. Xavier owes me more than I owe him."

"Well, that may be what I'm getting at. It looks like you have another toy here that you are yet to experiment with." Nightcrawler turns to a gun sitting on a table, "have you been able to test your mutant amplifier yet?"

Doc thought for a second, "Well, uh…no, not exactly…but…"

"Japan is pretty far away and I do have the ability to teleport…"

"What is your name, sir?"

"Kurt Wagner, but most of my peers call me Nightcrawler."

"Like the worm…sorry, never mind that," said Doc, "I haven't exactly worked out all of the kinks on my mutant amplifier. With a power such as yours, it could do more than just help us teleport farther, we might teleport to a different dimension."

"Nothing we haven't dealt with before," snorted Wolverine.

"That may be the case," Doc said turning to Wolverine, and then turning back to Nightcrawler, "Kurt, I'm not sure you would be willing to take that risk."

Nightcrawler looks at Wolverine and then back down at the gun. As Nightcrawler ponders the consequences his mind begins to float away.

About an hour later and a lot of moving and preparation the Time Machine and the mutant amplifier are set up outside of an empty field. Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Marty, and Doc Brown are all huddled around the machines and sort of give each other a look of curiosity.

"Are we ready for this, boys?" Doc said, interrupting the silence.

"Always," Wolverine said sternly.

"Let's do this Doc," Marty said.

"Kurt?" Doc asked.

"It's a little too late to turn back now," Nightcrawler turned from the machines to Doc, "how does this work again?" 

Doc looking at Nightcrawler replies, "It works like a magnifying glass. Whatever you put under the glass is amplified by ten times. Just do what you normally do to teleport and let me know when I should pull the trigger."

"Well, let's get this over with," said Wolverine getting more restless, "I'm tired o' waitin."

"Alright Marty, you get in the Time Machine now," Doc said, ordering his team, "you too Logan."

As Wolverine and Marty jumped into the Time Machine, Doc Brown points the gun at Nightcrawler and then grabbed hold of the time Machine. "Hold on tight Doc, I don't want to leave you behind," Nightcrawler said preparing himself.

As the gun started to load, the wind began to pick up around them. The energy around them is being used to help harness more power for the gun. Nightcrawler gives the signal to Doc Brown and he simultaneously fires the trigger. The car and four gents all disappear at the same time. Nightcrawler opens his eyes and sees a world he has never seen before. A purple, pink, and blue world surrounds them all. Nightcrawler walks around and looks at the members of his party. They are frozen in time and can't move. Nighty begins to snap his fingers in front of his friends to see if he can wake them up. He begins to wonder how to get out of this alternate dimension. He walks away from the car and realizes that this colorful, psychedelic space is infinite. He looks back to the car and sits for a second. He recalls what the good Doctor told him before they left. "Just do what you normally do to teleport," rang through Nightcrawler's head. He closed his eyes, grit his teeth and clenched his teeth. A loud waving pulse rang through his ears while he waited in the alternate dimension then all of a sudden: it stopped.

"Kurt, wake up! It worked! Hot damn it worked!" Doc Brown celebrated his new technological feat. He began to dance around the time machine and grab the hands of Nightcrawler, Wolverine, and Marty. Wolverine grabbed his hand back first and looked back at the area surrounding them. Marty and Nightcrawler gained their dignity back and stood watching Doc dance in circles alone.

Doc began to realize he was alone in his celebration. With his eyes closed tightly, he began to wonder why it was so quiet. His curiosity helped him ever so slightly open his eyes to see what was going on. A large group of twenty men in police uniforms stood in front of the team. The Chief of Police began to shout in Japanese, but again the words fell on deaf ears. A familiar face walked through the Police lines.

Shiro grabbed his sword and walked towards Wolverine and Nightcrawler. "You have returned. And you brought me a new toy to play with."

Shiro walks over to the Time Machine and begins to try and open it.

"Hey, get your grubby hands off the merchandise," yelled Marty.

Shiro ignores Marty and finds the door handle. Wolverine pulls his claws out and puts them to Shiro's neck, "Listen to the kid, before I make you, bub."

"Quite the nerve mutant, especially considering I helped you two freaks!" Shiro said, snapping Wolverine claws away from his throat, "you want to destroy the name of our friends, family, and legends! Kenshin is not a mutant, he is a Japanese hero!"

"We aren't denying that he is a hero, Shiro," Nightcrawler said, trying to play the good cop, "we just want some questions answered. He was a great warrior…"

"And you think the only way he could have ever been a good warrior is because he had special mutant abilities…?" Shiro retorted.

"It's just a possibility…" Nightcrawler said trying to calm Shiro down.

Shiro began to change face and looked down at the ground. Doc Brown approached him. "Hello sir, my name is Doctor Emmett Brown, you are Shiro?"

"Yes, the dojo master of the Kamiya Kasshin-ryū."

"Well, I can understand why how hard it is to know what life is going to be like if things change," Doc assured Shiro, "Who could ever tell what the future holds?"

"I'm glad you understand where my worries stem from." Shiro said, "I wish there was a way to see the future."

"There is my friend," Doc said with a gleam in his eye, "see that car over there? It is my own invention; it is…a Time Machine!" Shiro looks over at the Time Machine and begins to smile. "With that machine we will get the answers we are looking for. We will be able to find out what we are looking for and be back only moments after we leave."

"What does that mean for me," Shiro asked.

"You can let us leave and make our bad choices, or decisions, and wait for us to get back. We will go back in time, do our work, and be back instantly. Then, once we get back, you can do whatever you want with us. We will be your prisoners if we, in any way, change your way of life."

Shiro puts his index finger to his lip and thinks for a minute, "I like it…" Shiro looks around at his guards "let them go!"

The guards all take a step back and let the team get into its car.

"We're gonna need a little room gentlemen," Marty said laughing.

The car gets loaded up, and then Nightcrawler grabs the mutant amplifier "we might need this." A road is formed with a path along the long field all of this had transpired. Marty took the driver's seat and gets buckled in.

"We've gotta go fast to get this thing to work fellas," Marty said starting to get excited, "sit back and get ready for the fastest trip of your lives!" Marty, like a lead brick, lays his foot on the accelerator. The tires begin to screech and pull against the road. The road finally gives way while the car rips through the field. The Time Machine quickly hits forty miles per hour.

Shiro turns his head to the side in curiosity, wondering why they would leave in such hurried confusion. "Wait a second, they are trying to escape," screams Shiro, "there's no such thing as a time machine! Get them! Attack! Attack! Fire at Will!"

The entire Police Force begins to fire at the Time Machine.

"What the hell's goin on?" Marty squealed while trying to keep the car balanced.

"They're firing Marty! Step on it!" Doc grabbed Marty while delivering the news. Marty pushed harder on the Accelerator. The Police Force continued to run towards the Time Machine and continued to fire. The Time Machine hit seventy miles per hour, then eighty, then eighty five.

"We're almost there guys!" Marty yelled while his eyes went back and forth between his speedometer and the road ahead. A giant wall hiding a village from the forest is inching closer and closer. The Speedometer hit eighty eight miles per hour. Lights began to flash all around the vehicle and the car disappears before it hits the wall. The blinding flash from in front of the Time Machine took the group from 1990 to 1868.

Marty hits the brakes and the car begins to spin. The group gets out of the car and begins to look around. The village Wall that stood before the car on its trip to the past was still in front when the trip ended.

"I guess this wall has been here for a while," said Wolverine.

"Yup, I think this is going to be a great place to start." Nightcrawler added.

"Let's hide the Time Machine first," said Marty getting the attention away from the mission.

"Don't worry about it fellas, you go on ahead," Doc Brown said waving at the men, "We'll hide the car"

"What the hell Doc? Those guys are built, this won't hurt them any to help us out."

"Quiet Marty! I don't want them to hear!"

"Hear what?" Marty asked getting more and more curious.

"The car, Marty, it was shot right before we teleported. It's been leaking oil the whole time! There's no way we're gonna get back."

"Doc, what are you trying to say?"

"Marty, I don't think we're gonna be able to get back to the future this time!"

Marty put his hand to his head and began to rub the back of his neck "Doc, Doc, Doc, Doc…" Marty looks up at the Doc, "this is heavy…"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Where have you two been," asked Nightcrawler as he watched Doc Brown and Marty turn a corner. Marty looked distraught and scared, while Doc Brown had an oddly nervous smile plastered to his face.

"It smells like they have some bad news." Wolverine said with his snout in the air.

Doc Brown and Marty just continued to inch forward. Nightcrawler stepped towards them, "is everything alright guys?"

"Yes you two! We just couldn't get the machine hidden properly," Doc answered, "some of the shrubs here can be a bit misleading. You push your vehicle into the middle of the shrub to hide it, and then you can only fit half of the car behind any sort of shrubbery."

"That all, bub?" asked Wolverine stepping one foot closer.

"Yes, do I look like I'm hiding something?" retorted Doc.

Nightcrawler shifted his gaze to Marty, "well, he does."

"Marty!" Doc gives Marty a nudge to the midsection with his elbow, "wake up, will ya. The car wasn't that heavy."

"Huh, wha…?" Marty twists and turns looking at all of his companions.

"We did offer to help you guys move the thing," Nightcrawler said, a little confused, "I mean, I could've teleported that thing where ever."

"Yeah, but we wanted to do our part, right Marty?" Doc eyes got bigger and bigger as he stared at Marty.

"Yeah, right Doc." Marty put his hand on Doc shoulder and patted it a couple of times.

"That so?" Wolverine asked, grimacing.

"Uh…so." Marty said with a smile. An awkward fifteen second silence ensued. Marty finally began his questioning. "So, where to first, boys?"

"Well, maybe we ought to find our new friends dojo," Nightcrawler replied looking in all sorts of directions for a clue, "just one hundred fifty years before it's his of course."

"What was it called?" asked Doc, "maybe someone here can help us."

"Ain't gonna do much good boss," snarled Wolverine, "I don't know about you, but I don't understand a lick a Japanese."

"That's precisely why I brought these portable translators." Doc said pulling a small device out of his pocket.

"Wow, sweet Doc!" Marty said, already applying one to his neck, "These are awesome!"

"How does it work?" asked Nightcrawler.

"Well, here, I'll show you," answered Doc, passing out his new devices to his new friends, "just put the collars around your neck, and everything you hear today will come out in perfect English!"

"I still don't speak any Japanese Doc…" Wolverine said getting frustrated.

"That's the beauty of it," Exclaimed Doc, "everything you say passes through the same invisible bubble and is spoken in the language you want it to speak in. Our mouths might look odd to whoever you are speaking to, but that can all be worked around."

"Doc, why don't you sell these things and make a bunch of money?" asked Marty still trying to get his collar around his neck.

"I don't know…I've never really thought past the creation portion of my inventions. That's probably why none of my inventions have been tested." All three gentlemen jump and yelp at once as a needle passes through the collar to the neck of the wearer, "and there might be a slight prick once you finally get it attached."

"Thanks for the warnin' Doc…" Marty whined grabbing his neck.

"Who's ready to head into the great unknown?" Doc asked eagerly awaiting a response.

"Alright, let's go," Wolverine said walking away from the group.

Nightcrawler and Marty start to follow Wolverine into town. Doc stands in the field still smiling. His smile fades, "you know, a little enthusiasm and dramatic delivery goes a long way!" Doc waits a second for a response and starts to catch up with the group once he realizes they aren't listening.

A small building across town is labeled as the Kamiya Kasshin-ryū, a Kendo school in this small neighboring village of Tokyo. A ruckus was beginning to build inside of the Kendo school.

"I don't even understand why she's so upset," a small boy stated, matter of factly, "it's not like Kenshin would be interested in an 'uggo' like Karou anyway."

"That's enough Yahiko," a larger gentleman scoffed, "even though I usually love watching you and Karou go at each other's throats, I don't think now is a good time."

"I know Sano," replied Yahiko, "I just think she needs to grow up. If she really cares this much about Kenshin, then sitting here moping around isn't going to help anything!"

Sanosuke, also called Sano, turned to the boy. "Look, Yahiko, I know this is gonna be hard to hear, but you're gonna have to be the man around this place nowadays."

"What do you mean?" Yahiko asked.

"I know Kenshin asked us all to stay behind," replied Sano, "but that doesn't mean we have to listen. Kenshin's got a tough road ahead of him and not having us around to help is just smells like trouble. I know Kenshin, and when he thinks he has to be all noble and courageous in front of us, inside he's just a scared little boy…like you Yahiko…"

Yahiko starts to yell and kick at Sano, while Sano starts to laugh. "By the sound of what you just said, I should come along and help too!"

"Come on, Yahiko," Sano said correcting Yahiko, "you're needed here; you need to watch after Karou and the school. We don't need Kenshin's enemies getting a free pass to where he lives. You're a lot stronger than when I first met you, they need you here."

"Gee, thanks Sano. Do you really think that?"

"Yeah kid…plus I can't have you slowin' me down at every turn anyway." Sano teased, laughing as Yahiko tackles him and tries to get back at Sano. Sano continues to laugh as Yahiko does his best impression of Kenshin with his Kendo stick.

"Alright! Enough already!" Sano said trying to get to his feet.

Yahiko grabbed his Kendo stick and pushed himself off of a tall statue in the back courtyard of the school. Rushing his stick behind his own head with two hands he released his arms and walloped Sano over the head with the best smack he could muster. Sano, with a bump on his head and x's on his eyes spun in a circle and hit the ground.

"I'll show you who's slowing who down!" Yahiko screamed.

Megumi, the nurse of the school, rushed outside of her office and ran over to Sanosuke and Yahiko. Grabbing Yahiko's Kendo stick she turned to both of the boys and started to yell at them "I would think you two would be more concerned about Ms. Karou then trying to show each other up with your strength!"

"Yahiko started it!" Sano said pointing at the boy.

"What," Yahiko sprang to his feet, "No way! Sano started it…"

Sano and Yahiko started getting in each other's face again yelling and blaming each other for the fight.

"BOYS!" Megumi shrieked. "STOP IT!"

Both of the boys turned and got red in the face. Sano began rubbing the back of his neck while Yahiko just looked at the dirt underneath his feet. "Sano is trying to leave Megumi." Yahiko blurted out trying to get out of being in trouble.

"What, you don't think I could hear you two screaming in the Courtyard?" Megumi asked, "If Sano must leave, then that is what he must do. You need to make your own choices too Yahiko, but just remember you are a student here, and you do have responsibilities to this school."

"I know," whined Yahiko, "I just want to help Kenshin, he needs us Megumi!"

"We need you here too Yahiko. Somebody needs to take care of this place while Karou…mourns…Kenshin…" Megumi turned away with that statement.

Yahiko turns to follow Megumi as Sanosuke makes his way to the front gate. He opens the hard and heavy gate to the streets of town and heads towards his new journey. Sano stops and looks at the school and begins to think to himself. _I'm really gonna miss this place, but it's not the same without Kenshin. I did mean everything I told Yahiko though. He is getting a lot stronger and he's probably going to be a big help for Karou and the gang here. _Sano interrupted his own thoughts as he saw Yahiko turn to watch him leave. "When I catch up to Kenshin, he's going to really appreciate what you are doing here Yahiko!"

Sano waved to Yahiko with a smile and turned to walk away again. As he turned to face his forest filled future he was barred by three insanely sharp knives. "I've got a few questions for ya' bub," Wolverine said using half of his face to grin, "And if you could offer me a beer too, that would be great."

"I don't think you know who you're dealing with weirdo," Sano said, trying to push Wolverine's arm out of his face, "but I've got things to do and people to see." Sano looked at Wolverine and then noticed the strange clawed man's three friends. Sano begins to think to himself again. _Well, if it's a fight they want, then it's a fight they're gonna get!_ Sano looked back at Wolverine again. "Outta the way shrimp, or you're gonna get a fistful of Sano right to the gut!"

Wolverine started to laugh. "I'd like to see you try it, bu…" Right before Wolverine could finish his trademark insult ("Bub") Sano reared back and socked Wolverine right where he promised he would. Wolverine went flying across the small forest ahead of them, knocking tree after tree down to the earth.

"How's that for try?" Sano said, putting his hands at his hips and rearing his neck back to let out a good laugh. Sano felt a small hand grab his arm. Sano turned to see Yahiko standing at the ready with his Kendo stick.

"What's going on?" Yahiko asked.

"I don't know squirt," replied Sano, "but these guys are the reason why I need you to stay." Sano turned all the way to Yahiko to continue to explain his thoughts. "As long as we keep fighting guys as weak as this, there shouldn't be a problem for you. You see Yahiko, there comes a time in every young boys life when…" and before Sano could finish his thought a hard metal fist plunged into the back of his head.

"Gonna need a lot more than that to keep me down…BUB," Wolverine snarled at Sano.

Sano, getting up through all of the debris and crushed trees he plunged into, starting rubbing the back of his head, "Hey! What's the big idea, guy? What kind of chicken shit way of fighting are you used to anyways?" Sano began to wave his arm at Wolverine as he inched closer and closer.

"YAAARRGGHH!" Yahiko jumped at Wolverine from behind with his Kendo stick and tried to crack Wolverine over the head. As the stick made impact it began to snap right over Wolverine's skull. Yahiko landed with his mouth wide open. Staring at his stick in complete disbelief, it looked as though he could not have hit somebody harder and yet, there stood his opponent, completely unharmed. Wolverine slowly turned to Yahiko and gave a half smile to the kid.

"You got guts kid," Wolverine said with his smirk, "lucky for you, I don't hit kids."

"Yeah, well, too bad for you I never make exception for adults who are just a little bit taller than me."

Sano laughed and then yelled towards Yahiko, "keep him there kid, I'm gonna cripple him now!"

Yahiko grabbed Wolverine while Sano jumped in the air with his foot aimed at Wolverine's face. Nightcrawler looked to the sky and rolled his eyes, only to nobody's amusement since his eyes are completely yellow. Doc grabbed Marty, "when should we step in?"

Nightcrawler turned to Doc, "don't worry…" and by the time his last syllable rolled off of his tongue Nightcrawler was gone. He appeared right in front of Wolverine and grabbed him by the head. In another split second Wolverine was gone. Now nothing stood in between Yahiko and Sano.

"Aaaah," Yahiko screamed watching Sano's foot head towards his face. Sano alright moving at full force felt his face drop as he realized he was about to smash his own friend. A massive thump was heard and Yahiko's little body went flying.

"Yahiko!" Sano yelled as he watched his friend soar. Nightcrawler disappeared again only to reappear seconds later with the small boy in his arms.

"I feel partially to blame here. I think it is time we stop the senseless violence." Nightcrawler gave a hard stare at his friend and his new acquaintance. "We actually have business we were tending to before this fight began."

"This is the place Elf," assured Wolverine, "I can smell it."

"We've trusted that wonderful nose before Kurt," blurted Doc.

Wolverine grabbed Sano by the coat once more to get a good hold of him. "This guy said that Warrior's name too."

"Kenshin?" asked Yahiko.

"Do you know where he is?" Nightcrawler asked Yahiko, spinning him around.

"Yeah, well…no…not exactly," replied Yahiko.

"That's enough Yahiko, we don't know who these…people…things…are" snapped Sano.

"Yeah, well, this blue guy just saved me a second ago, so they can't be all bad," shouted Yahiko.

"I assure you we had definitely gotten off on the wrong foot mein freund," Nightcrawler timidly revealed, "we are here as a small search party only to ask questions, we mean no harm."

"Listen…" Sano said looking Nightcrawler up and down.

"Kurt," Nightcrawler said, "or Nightcrawler. Either is fine by me."

"…okay, Nightcrawler. Lemme talk to my friend over here in private." Sano said trying to not give away the fact he doesn't trust the group in front of him.

Sano pulled Yahiko a few feet away. "I don't understand what the big deal is Sano. They aren't that bad."

"Well, maybe we ought to not get mixed up with strangers one day removed from Kenshin's departure." Sano cracked back, "Let's not forget who the elder is."

"Yeah, well you're the one who was about to leave!" Yahiko screamed back at Sano. "You were the one who made me the 'man' of the house! I guess now you mistrust in me is about to backfire." Yahiko stepped back towards Nightcrawler and showed his hand in the direction of the Kendo school. "As the interim leader of this school I'd like to invite you guys in as honorary guests. Kenshins not here right now, but if you guys wanna help, I'm willing to go out and find him."

"Where is he punk?" Wolverine growled.

"He left to fight a very strong warrior that Kenshin thought he could fight alone. His name is Shishio Makato. I don't know much about him, but I know Kenshin doesn't like him and I know Kenshin needs our help."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Wolverine: asking one more question.

"Please, come inside for tonight. She's not really feeling up to it, right now, but there is one more person who would probably like to join our search party." Yahiko said while turning to face his Kendo school.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

"You know Ms. Karou, moping around and crying all day isn't going to help someone with your looks." Yahiko teased as he walked in the room where Karou was being tended to. As Yahiko walked further into the room, he led all of his friends, new and old, along with him.

"Who are they?" asked Karou.

"Guten tag, Ms. Karou," said Nightcrawler, introducing himself, "I am Kurt Wagner and these are my friends. We were hoping to ask a few questions regarding your wandering comrade, Kenshin."

Megumi walked back into the room holding some food for Karou and another blanket, "Oh my…"

"Hey Megumi, I think I'm gonna stay for one more night," Sano said, "these guys might need somewhere to stay and I'm still not one hundred percent on board letting these guys be on their own."

"I don't need a babysitter, Bub," snarled Wolverine, "you can go where ever you want."

"It's not you I'm concerned about," snapped Sano, "I still don't trust you. I still don't agree with Yahiko letting you stay here."

"Fine by me, we can find somewhere else to sleep."

"No! You guys can't leave!" yelled Yahiko, "leave them alone Sano! I think they can help us!"

"Help with what? There's nothing going on with Kenshin that I can't handle myself!" Sano rang back.

"Come on Sano, be real! We need all of the help we can get," Yahiko's head sank, "that's why I'm in here right now, because we need Karou too…"

As Yahiko finished his last word Sano and Megumi both lost control of their jaws and fell into shock. This was the first time either one of them had ever heard Yahiko say something nice about Karou.

Ever since Yahiko joined the Kendo school, run my Karou, he had been nothing but cruel to the poor girl. While Yahiko wasn't always the only one to dish out insults, he was usually the first. Unfortunately, as the school's only student, Karou had always been forced to just deal with it. Yahiko, being the smart young lad that he is, realized this and became a relentless, foulmouthed, little twerp. Yahiko has always been on the side of growth, however, and now more than ever knew that his friends needed him to be a man. Yahiko looked over at Karou again, "I'm afraid that if Karou doesn't come with us, Kenshin will never come back…" Yahiko's head sunk again, this time to hide tears.

"Oh, come on kid!" Sano said putting his hand on Yahiko's shoulder, "Kenshin is gonna come back, no matter what."

"Maybe we should go…" Marty said grabbing Doc and Wolverine.

"No, it's okay," Yahiko said, "I'm sorry, we just want our friend back."

"I understand mein freund." Nightcrawler said putting his hand on Yahiko's shoulder, "we will help you find your friend and hopefully bring him back home."

"We should prepare tonight then." Yahiko added confidently, "let's get some rest now so we can be ready to go find Kenshin!" Yahiko looked around at his new friends, smiling. He looked over at Sano, who was currently standing in the corner with half of his face covered by shadows. Most of the group came together leaving Karou's room alone. Yahiko motioned towards Sano and smiled again, "I'm glad you decided to stay Sano. With our new friends and you, I'm sure we're going to be able to defeat Shishio!"

With Sano barely budging he gave a small smirk towards Yahiko, "you're right kid. Now go get some rest. You know we all need it."

Yahiko responded, "Yeah, you're right." Yahiko nodded towards Sano and then left the room.

Sano waited for Yahiko to completely leave the room and then crouched next to Karou, "I know you feel pain and loss Karou, but Kenshin needs you. Yahiko needs you. We can't do this without you, and I don't trust Yahiko to be alone with those guys." Karou finally looked over at Sano realizing what he was trying to say. "I'm still going to leave tonight. I know Yahiko wants me to stay, but this is something I've got to do." Karou rolled back away from Sano. She began to cry again feeling the loss of another along with more responsibility thrust on her. "It'll be alright Karou." Sano put his hand on her back and then proceeded to lift himself and slowly head out the back door. Sano slowly slipped into the darkness and left the school.

As Sano began his solo journey he heard movement in the bushes and trees around him. Sano began to walk a little bit slower with his fists and arms at the ready. He began to think to himself. _Good gravy, what now?_ Sano continued to creep until he heard the snap of a twig behind him. Sano spun around and prepared himself for battle. As he searched the dark forest for anything he saw a body start to appear through the brush. He began to recognize the figure. Wolverine stood in front of Sano now with a snapped twig in his hand.

Wolverine threw the twig to the ground. "Sorry, just wanted to scare you a little bit."

"What are you doing here?" asked Sano.

"Keepin' an eye on my new friends", Wolverine sarcastically revealed, "where are you off to Bub? You didn't even say goodbye…"

Sano stepped forward and grabbed Wolverine's shirt and pulled him forward, "I don't know who you people are, why you want to help, or how you even got here, but I know I don't need to explain anything to you." Wolverine let his claws push through the skin on his hands again. Sano followed that threat by letting Wolverine go. "Look, I know Kenshin and we have no idea how far ahead he is or if he is even still alive. We aren't gonna do the little guy any favors all rushing in with an army and guns blazin'."

"Look Bub, I'm not here to play hero," Wolverine replied with, "I'm here to get some answers about your friend. If that means I gotta keep that kid over there happy by dragging you back to camp, then so be it."

Sano turned back at Wolverine and began to grind his teeth. "And I'm not gonna shy away from a fight, but you know that already." Wolverine's confidence is erased by his annoyance with Sano. Wolverine dropped his guard shortly followed by Sano. "I don't know what you think you're gonna learn from Kenshin anyway." Sano paused to hear Wolverine's response before he could turn and walk away.

"It's just like you," Wolverine said, "it's just something I've got to do."

Sano looked at Wolverine for a few seconds with Wolverine staring right back. Sano's eyes opened a little more while he cracked a smile. "Why don't you come with me?"

"Huh?"

"Yeah, come on," Sano said feeling pretty confident about his new idea, "I can tell you don't really want to be slowed down by those guys either."

Wolverine looked back at the Kendo school, "ugh, alright. Let's go."

Sano's smile vanished. "That's it? You were supposed to be more excited than that!" Sano raised his fist and began to shake it at Wolverine as he began to walk forward. "I don't do this very often ya know! I usually work by myself! This is a huge privilege for you!"

Wolverine stopped walking and turned back at Sano. "You comin'?"

Sano's head sank, "yeah, let's go."

"One thing I forgot to tell you, I don't just have these claws," Wolverine said with a sneaky smile, "My other mutant ability makes my five senses work at a higher intensity. I can probably sniff out your friend from here."

"Like a dog?" Asked Sano.

"Keep it up, and I'll show you what other dog traits I have…" Wolverine snarled.

"Alright, alright, tough guy. Let's get going now, and keep quiet. The last thing I need is another speech from that little ingrate Yahiko. I know which way Kenshin was heading, so we at least have a starting point."

Wolverine continues to walk forward, but then looks back at Sano. Sano turns to the small kendo school once more and gives a long heavy sigh. "I do hope that Yahiko takes good care of himself. Karou too."

"Come on Bub, we need to get moving now, or you're never going to. Kurt will help them out, and that old guy has more tricks up his sleeve than you would think."

Sano finally turns to follow Wolverine and the two head off into the forest and disappear. The gate from the school closes. Nightcrawler's three white gloved fingers are the ones shutting it. "I hope he knows what he's doing."

"Yeah, I agree. I felt a little more comfortable with that guy around." Nightcrawler turned to see Marty peering through a hole in the wall.

"I'm not so bad myself, you know."

"Yeah, but he's got claws and won't die from all of these lame swords."

Nightcrawler walks over to a stack of swords in a corner that are usually saved for a class session. "I'm not so bad with a sword either."

"Seriously?" asked Marty

"Yeah, why don't I show you a few things? Nothing like learning about good swordsmanship in an ancient kendo school," replied Nightcrawler.

"Right on! I can finally come back from one of Doc's trips with a new skill." Marty excitedly replied.

Nightcrawler threw a sword over to Marty and began his first session with his new friend.

On the morning of the next day, Yahiko woke up his new friends while looking and screaming for help finding Sano and Wolverine.

"Where did they go?" asked Yahiko.

"Don't worry mein freund, they haven't gone far." Nightcrawler replied.

"Huh, what do you mean?" Yahiko asked, confused as to how Nightcrawler knew what he meant.

"My freund left last night too," Nightcrawler replied, "which is all the more reason that we need to leave as soon as possible."

Yahiko stared at the ground and began to grit his teeth together. He closed his eyes and let out a very large breath. His fist, which was once clenched, began to release. "We still can't leave without Karou…"

Nightcrawler looked back to the part of the dojo where Karou had been resting. Nightcrawler looked down at Yahiko, who still seemed to be working everything out in his head. Yahiko hadn't yet moved his stare from the rocks below him, so Nightcrawler patted Yahiko on the shoulder and then began to walk towards Karou's room. He stepped toward the open doorway and began to hear voices coming from the room. Nightcrawler peered in to see Megumi finishing up a one person conversation with Karou. She obviously was turned away from Megumi and was probably trying as hard as she could to not listen.

"You already know how I feel about Kenshin and I also know how he feels about you!" Megumi yelled, "You need to get up out of this room and start to think about your friends and people close to you. I know what Kenshin hurts…a lot, but you can't let that stop you. And if there was ever a time that you needed a sign that this was the time for action, then look outside. There a people here to help, people who I have never seen the likes of before."

Karou's shoulder began to turn towards Megumi ever so slightly. Nightcrawler's yellow eyes squinted to make sure what he was seeing was real and then they slowly began to widen. A small smirk ran across his face, a short grin to show Nightcrawler's satisfaction. Yahiko looked over to Nightcrawler at precisely the same time Nightcrawler looked at him. Nightcrawler gave a thumb's up to Yahiko and Yahiko smiled and jumped up in the air. Nightcrawler, puzzled to see the boy's over-exuberance looked straight ahead to see the small Kendo teacher standing in front of him.

"Are you truly here to help stranger?" asked Karou.

"As best I can madam." replied Nightcrawler grabbing her hand.

"Yahoo! Let's get going then!" screamed Yahiko, "God, what took you so long, you weirdo? Couldn't you tell we've been waiting for you?"

"I'm sorry Yahiko, but I'm ready now," replied Karou as she walked towards him.

"Wow, that's really weird," a perplexed Yahiko let be known.

"What's that, Yahiko?" asked Karou.

"Well, I always heard of a thing called beauty sleep, but after how long you were out, there's no way that can be true." Yahiko said laughing. He began to roll on the ground in front of Karou.

Karou's mouth shrank and turned to one side of her face. A drop of sweat fell from her forehead and as Yahiko continued to roll around laughing, Karou picked up her Kendo stick and began to thrash Yahiko around the garden. "I'm gonna kill you this time Yahiko!"

Yahiko, running from Karou and laughing, grabbed his hindquarters and yelled back, "it's good to have you back Karou!"

Nightcrawler watched for a few more seconds and began to chuckle to himself. He shook his head and was about to turn and walk away when Megumi made her presence known, "I don't know why, but I'm going to trust that you help my friends." Nightcrawler turned to her with an open ear. "These people are all very important to me. They helped me when they really had no business doing so. I want you to take this cream for Kenshin. Knowing him, he's not gonna want you or any of his friends to do much fighting. The cream will help Kenshin heal and seeing that you are probably going to be the leader of this group, I figured you ought to be the one to hold it."

Nightcrawler took the cream and pocketed it. He was about to walk away when Megumi let Nightcrawler in on one last plea: "I've seen your abilities at work and I know you are good people. Please, if the time comes that you must, please get my friends to safety." Nightcrawler looked Megumi in the eye and gave her one reassuring nod. He walked over to a barn area in the back of the school while Megumi went back inside to school to continue her daily chores.

In the barn, Marty and Doc Brown were working on different ways to get back to the present day. When they had traveled back in time a stray bullet from the action beforehand placed a small hole in the side of the car making it impossible for the car to even start.

"Marty, I don't think there is any way we can fix the Time Machine this time," Doc said with scared eyes as he looked into the back of the barn. He began to rub his forehead.

"Doc, Doc, Doc," Marty said with deep concern in his voice, "what do you mean there's no way to get back? There's always something. A train or a maybe a bolt of lightning! Can you remember any huge storms that happened during this time in Japan?"

"How old do you think I am?" Doc asked, "Ugh, it doesn't matter anyway. Unless we know the precise time that the lightning bolt was going to hit, we really have no way of getting that car to generate enough power. Besides, we can't even get the damn car to start. We would need some sort of sling shot to propel the car forward. Do you think either of those two mutants is made of rubber?"

"Not likely Doc," Marty replied, taking a seat next to the table they were working on, "I can't believe we're stuck here."

"I think I'm finally beginning to know what you meant all those times when you said our situation was 'heavy'".

"What's the matter with you two?" asked Nightcrawler.

"Were stuck here Kurt," answered Marty. Doc nudged Marty and with his eyes as wide as he could make them gave a subtle shake to tell Marty to keep quiet.

"No, the lady we were waiting for is ready to go. She has had a recent and sudden change of heart," Nightcrawler said with a smile.

"See, I told you Marty," Doc said looking down at Marty, "pessimism won't get us anywhere!"

Karou and Yahiko finally finished their race to pound each other and ran into the barn. "That guy in the puffy jacket and blue pants is Marty," Yahiko said introducing Karou to their new friends, "and the guy with the crazy white hair is a Doctor."

"Ah, how do you do?" Doc said grabbing Karou's hand, "Doctor Brown at your service."

"And what the kid said," Marty replied standing up, "Marty Mcfly."

"Very nice to meet you both," Karou said with a giant smile, "you have no idea how much it means to me to know you are all going to help."

"It is our pleasure Karou," Nightcrawler said stepping forward, "now, should we be off?"

"Yes…" Karou said holding out her hand for a reminder of Nightcrawler's name.

"Kurt." Nightcrawler said with a reply.

"We will board a boat immediately which has set its course for Tokyo. It's going to be our best chance to catch up with Sano and hopefully Kenshin."

"Then we're finally gonna leave?" Yahiko asked.

"Yes, but we'll need to hurry, I think the boat is about to leave." Karou said with a little worry in her voice.

"Is it the on the harbor on the east side of town?" asked Nightcrawler.

"Yes!"

"Then leave it to me." Nightcrawler put his hand out for everyone to grab. Once everyone had a hold of each other, only purple and pink smoke was left behind.


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER 5**

"Smell anything yet?" Sano yelled towards Wolverine.

"Nothing yet, my nose… have to get used to this time period," Wolverine replied, "no soap or exhaust to sort through."

"So you have less to smell, but you are having trouble finding Kenshin," Sano uttered back, "are you sure you know how to use that thing?"

Wolverine kept his nose to the wind and without moving popped three of his claws out. Wolverine figured this would be the best way to warn Sano that he may be going too far with the questions. "Just give me a sec and shut up!" Wolverine started to walk away from where he was standing and started to move towards his left.

"You got it?" Sano asked.

"Nope."

"Then where are you going?"

"There's a bonfire at the bottom of this hill and I'm thirsty."

"Damn't Logan! Come on! We have to find Kenshin!"

Wolverine turned back to Sano and grinned, "then get your panties straightened and follow me. Maybe whoever got that fire going knows where your buddy is."

"Oh, right," Sano said a little embarrassed, "that's a pretty good idea."

Sano and Wolverine continued down the rocky hill to see if the small group had seen the red haired warrior. Sano tried to keep up with Wolverine, but the way Wolverine moved, you would think he was born a beast and not a man. As soon as Sano reached the bottom of the hill, Wolverine was gone. Sano started to walk slowly out to a small bush that would serve as good cover as he scoped the area. A gave himself a minute to check his surroundings and the fire that was burning in front of him. Sano turned to look behind him and around other tree and bushes. Getting frustrated Sano thought alone "I knew I couldn't trust that little ingrate. He's just as trustworthy as Yahiko and that kid would swipe food from my own throat." Sano gave a deep breath and continued to scope the area. He turned back to the group of people. Sano whispered "I guess it's up to me then." He stood up ready to introduce himself only to feel a sharp pain in his back.

"Keep your head down," Wolverine whispered, "this guy has some sort of armor drying over there."

"He's probably not the kind of guy to surprise then…" Sano whispered back. Sano's face turned mad as he spun around to Wolverine, "was it really necessary to stab me in the back to get my attention?"

"Cool it, cupcake," Wolverine calmly replied, "It was the best way to get your attention without grabbing anyone else's."

Just as the two were balling their fists, ready to fight each other they were both stopped by a sudden and startling rush of energy. Wolverine and Sano both looked at their feet as the ground beneath them began to shake. As soon as the rumble came, it went. Wolverine and Sano looked at each other still with their arms ready to fight.

"What do ya say we go find out what that noise is?" asked Sano.

"Only if ya promise I can come back here and wipe the floor with ya," Wolverine snarled.

Sano dropped his fists which gave Wolverine a signal to drop his. Just as Wolverine turned to sniff the air for where this interruption was coming from Sano ripped him one, right in the head. Sano's fist, aimed right where Wolverine's head was a second ago, lowered from where it was positioned as he yelled over at Wolverine, "How does that floor look from your perspective?"

"Pretty damn tasty," Wolverine growled, "Want a taste?"

Sano got into another fighting stance and watched Wolverine slowly get to his feet. Wolverine slowly made his way to Sano, while Sano got back into a fighting stance, ready for Wolverine to attack at any moment. Wolverine finally reached Sano and raised his hand over Sano's shoulder. Sano quickly re-positioned his arms to block a blow from his arm over his head. Wolverine's hand came down a little bit slower than expected as he laid his hand on Sano's shoulder, followed by a few pats in the same area.

"Nice punch Bub."

"Uh…thanks?" Sano said a tad bit confused.

Wolverine jabbed Sano right in the gut followed by Sano hitting his knees to the dirt and clutching his stomach.

Sano coughed out a few words with what air was left in him, "nice...one…" Sano began to slowly catch his breath as well as gain his footing again. "We might need some sort of warning system, so that we don't end up killing each other before we reach Kenshin."

"I'd say you rolling on the ground gasping for air was good enough for me," Wolverine joked. Wolverine lent his hand and arm to Sano to help his friend up. Then Sano smacked his hand on Wolverine's shoulder a few times to show good faith.

"Yeah, well…" Sano began before they heard the loud thundering smash again. Wolverine put his hand out to tell Sano where to hide. Wolverine raised his right arm into the air and made a fist. Making a confused and bewildered face, Sano stopped where he was moving towards. Wolverine waved his hand for Sano to follow and Sano did likewise. Just as the two were about to pass through some brush they heard the loud smash again. Wolverine grabbed one side of the bush in front of them, while Sano grabbed the other. They pulled it into two and saw a man, legs crossed, sitting on the floor. The man had his hand balled into a fist and thrust the balled fist through a rock. The two watched the man pick up another rock and were waiting to see the powerful punch yet again.

"I would prefer if I was to be watched, that you make yourselves known." The large man said to the wandering travelers.

"What the hell are you doing there big guy?" Wolverine started, "harvesting dust?"

"Not in the least, little man," replied the behemoth.

"You're training, aren't you?" Sano asked, rather excitedly.

"If you're here to learn, I am going to warn you, I'm not here to teach," advised the man.

Sano sat down next to the man and put his hand out, "Sanosuke Sagara!"

The man looked at Sano's hand for a few beats and then answered Sano's greeting, "Anji Yukyuzan."

"I'm gonna go ahead and leave it at Anji," Wolverine countered, "name's Logan."

"Greetings Logan," Anji said, speaking with a hint of dis-interest. "Was there anything else I could help you gentleman out with?"

"Nope, we are heading out to meet a friend this way," Wolverine retorted, "maybe you've seen him."

"Not many folk have been traveling out this far into the forest." Anji finished his statement only to realize Sano was looking at the new pile of Sand Anji recently created by pulverizing a rock a few seconds earlier. "Like I said early Sanosuke, I am a very busy man right now, and I have a long journey ahead."

"What do you call it?" Sano said, sounding like an excited child.

"My technique?" asked Anji. Sano smiled and shook his head in an up and down motion. "It's called the Futae no Kiwami, a very precise technique that requires years of patience and practice to master. Now if you don't mind, I did say I had to prepare for a very long journey. I must say goodnight to you both and wish you luck finding your friend."

"Wait a second Anji," Sano said standing up to follow Anji, "This could be exactly what I am looking for!"

"How so?" Anji said as he paused, still facing away from Sano, but ready to listen.

"There is a man I met recently who put down my own fighting techniques. He said I don't focus enough on defending myself. That's not how I fight though. I figure you teach me how to become stronger and I can shut that guy up pretty quickly!"

"If it is revenge you seek, then you are definitely not ready to learn my technique." Anji said continuing to walk ahead.

"It's not only that," Sano continued, however this time Anji did not hesitate to listen, "it's for my friend we are looking for. I'm not sure if what I'm doing is right, only because I'm not sure…if I have the strength to give my friend the help he deserves. Don't get me wrong, I'd never give up on the guy, I'll always be there for him…it's just…" Anji stepped inside his camp site and closed his door, "he already left my friends and I once, and I don't want him to feel like he needs to protect us by leaving…"

"Touching…" Wolverine snickered as Sano kept his eyes to the ground. A few moments passed.

"The Futae no Kiwami is not an easy technique to master," Anji said standing at his open doorway. Sano turned his head to face Anji again, "I will teach you the basic idea of the technique, but I cannot devote any more time than that."

"I won't let you down Anji!"

Wolverine lay on the dirt floor and whipped out a cigar he was saving, "Shit…"

On a journey that most likely to end in the same place, Nightcrawler, Yahiko, Karou, Doc Brown, and Marty, were all headed towards Tokyo on a ferry. The new team was focused on finding their lost team members: Wolverine and Sano, as well as their original target, Ruroni Kenshin.

"So what's the plan for finding everyone?" Nightcrawler asked.

"Plan? Never really thought of one…" Yahiko answered.

"I'm not really sure either Kurt, we don't really have much to go on." Karou said to Nightcrawler.

"Maybe there was a spot Kenshin had talked about. I mean, Wolverine and Sano must be headed in some direction." A puzzled Nightcrawler spoke.

"My first inclination is just to ask once we get off of the boat. Kenshin has a pretty noticeable scar on the side of his face. If anyone has seen him, they would know." Karou advised.

"Alright, I think I can work with that," Nightcrawler said turning to Doc Brown and Marty, "Anything you guys would like to add?"

"Sounds great Kurt," Marty said smiling, "Doc, you got any ideas?"

Marty nudged the good Doctor who was busy going through some schematics on a table behind the group. Doc was whispering to himself as well "If we could just get the converter to be calibrated from a different direction…no, the result would probably be catastrophic…"

"Hey…Doc…" Marty said.

"What is it Marty?" Doc said spinning towards the group.

"Kurt wants to know if you have anything that could help us out with finding everyone, ya know, maybe one of your awesome gadgets you've got stashed away," Marty leaned in closer to Doc and whispered into his ear, "anything you could pull out of your a-"

"Of course I have something that could help…"

"Well, what was it?" asked Yahiko.

"My dear boy…its…a…" Doc said, obviously stalling. He began to look around the room for an answer.

"Maybe it's in your bag Doc…" Marty said trying to give Doc more time to think. Both of the gentlemen turned to the bag of tricks Doc brought to help them on this trip. Marty leaned in again, "come on Doc, you've gotta gimme something…"

"What's going on here guys?" Nightcrawler asked, "just tell us what you're working on with those blueprints."

Still going through the bag and ignoring Nightcrawler, Doc continued to search for an answer. His hand kept sweeping through different gadgets and inventions that had barely stood the test of time. Marty looked at his closest friend one more time and tried to push something out of him, "Doc?" Just as Marty's eyes were almost as wide as they could be Doc yanked his hand out of the bag.

"I've got it," Doc screamed, "how I could be so blind! This is going to make this entire endeavor eons and eons simpler. I forgot I had placed a tracker on all of you when I met you!"

"Uh…all of us?" asked Karou as her face turned to look disgusted as she searched her body to find out where this crusty old man touched her.

"Yes, all of you!" Doc answered matter of factly.

"Ha, I can't believe he could get that close to you Karou!" joked Yahiko, as he continued to be chased by Karou around the boat, while he let his laughter grow.

"Not quite like that sonny." Doc said scratching his head, "I placed a small microchip in your hands when I met all of you this past week. It's an easy way for me to keep tabs on loved ones…and maybe people I'm just afraid to not know where they are standing."

"Awfully sweet of you Doc," Marty said, rolling his eyes.

"It only slightly borders the line of Invasion of Privacy," Nightcrawler said, judging the old fool, "however the side of the line that it borders is probably not the side you want to be on."

"I am sorry you feel that way, Kurt," added Doc, "but without this, I'm afraid our journey to find our friends would be much longer. Now, as I have made known, quite well to you all, since none of my inventions have had any formal testing…I am going to make sure that when I turn this on it won't hurt any of you. Marty!"

"Yeah Doc?"

"Grab the rest of the bag, we're going to see if we can't get this thing to work."

"Let me help," Nightcrawler said holding out his hand.

"No, no, no, we've got it Kurt," Doc answered with a sly look on his face, "I can tell you fancy the young lady over there. Why don't you give her a chance to meet the real Kurt, ya know, show her what she's missing."

"That's not exactly why we are here Doctor." Nightcrawler responded.

"Yeah Doc, I don't think she's gonna feel like she's missing out on much anyway," Marty said holding up Nightcrawler's hands, which only have six fingers all together.

"Not really what I meant mein freund," Nightcrawler said pulling his hands back.

"Besides, I saw the way she was looking at me," Marty added, "I think she's looking for something a little more…human…"

"I think I know what you mean Marty; she was giving you the same look your mother did." Doc said without batting an eye or thinking about what words had just come out of his mouth. Nightcrawler's face contorted to try an understand what he just heard.

"What is he…" Nightcrawler began with.

"Nothing! It's a long story for another day," Marty replied, "I thought we were going to keep that our little secret Doc?" Doc began to walk away and Marty followed closely behind. "What the hell Doc? You gonna tell me why you had to say that stuff in front of Kurt?"

"Marty, I'm sorry, but you weren't exactly being fair to the poor guy," Doc said, "making fun of his lost digits on his hands. Besides, I wasn't trying to get him in bed with the fair lady, I was just trying to get his to leave us alone for a second…"

"Jeez, I think you're right Doc," Marty said rubbing the back of his neck, "maybe I should go apologize or something…"

As Marty kept talking Doc kept trying to get his attention, "Marty! I've figured it out! We need to somehow duplicate the energy it takes to create the time warp."

"Doc, we don't have anything like that," Marty answered, "we already went through everything in this bag."

Doc turned to Marty with a glint in his eyes, "What we need Marty, isn't in that bag…" Doc turned his attention from Marty to down the hall at where their new friends were residing. "Try and be a little bit nicer to Kurt, Marty. I have a feeling my plan will work out a little bit easier if he is on our side…"

Marty slowly turned his head from Nightcrawler back to the Doc. Doc then turned back at Marty continuing to stare with the glint in his eye.

Seven days have passed between the meeting of Anji and the glorious revelation by Doc Brown. The boat had finally docked into the harbor of Tokyo which left of the group to finally begin their quest looking for their friends. The other half of the group was still in the forest learning the Futae no Kiwami technique, which delivers two strikes to an opponent so quickly and precisely that when delivered to a rock, turns the rock to dust. At the time of the training Sano was the only member of the party interested in learning, however after trying to perfect the technique for seven days, Wolverine decided to join in on the fun.

Wolverine let out a loud scream out of frustration, "YAAAARRHG! This is so God Damn frustrating!" Wolverine threw the crushed rocks in his hand across the camp site.

"You will never perfect the technique Logan, with all of your pent up energy. Release your energy and gain focus." Anji warned the feral beast.

A long high pitched squeak noise was followed by a thundering crushing of a duck. Sano turned and looked at Wolverine, "what the hell was that?"

Wolverine looked over at Sano with a smile, "I was releasing my energy." The trio all shared a good laugh until Wolverine put his rocks down and began to hone in on getting his mind to the right setting.

"Are you meditating?" Sano asked.

"Yeah, but it doesn't do much good with you askin questions." Wolverine replied, "I've had some training before with my sensei."

"Wait, wait, wait,…" Sano said fighting the urge to be floored by what Wolverine just said, "YOU have been trained in martial arts?"

"Yeah, why, I don't seem the type?" the roughed up, growling, clawed, veteran asked.

"Uh…do you really want me to answer that question?" Sano replied, answering with a question.

Anji got up from the fire that the three gentleman were training at and excused himself, "I must leave in the morning. Please forgive me, for I have not lost my patience with you, but I have stayed here maybe a bit too long. If we meet again, I hope it will be in good standing."

"I second that big guy!" Wolverine said getting up from his meditation. Wolverine put his hand out to say goodbye as the two men shook.

"Don't let Sano over work himself, Logan," Anji added, "his heart knows what it wants, but his head might not know when to stop."

"I hear ya, I'll keep an eye on him." Logan assured as the two men looked over at Sano, who with a large pile of rocks next to him, continued to try and make the technique work.

As the night went on, Sano continued to work on his rocks, sometimes pausing to regain his focus while other times Sano would crush rock after rock letting out his frustration. Morning was coming closer and Sano had nearly no energy left to even pick up a rock. Wolverine had been asleep most of the night and Anji hadn't been seen since he excused himself. Sano picked up one last rock and sat down.

_I can't believe how hard this is. I thought I was one of the greatest hand to hand fighters in the world. _Sano thought to himself. _What am I doing wrong?_ Sano crossed his legs and imitated what Wolverine had been doing earlier while he was meditating. After a few minutes Sano had gone over everything in his head to try and force the technique into his arm. He released his mind form the meditation and gripped that last rock he had left. _Be quick, _he thought to himself. He raised his right arm and with every ounce of energy left in him let his hand come crashing down on the rock. The first connection was made followed closely by the second. Sano was used to having a little crumbled rock in his hand after about a week of practice. This time, however, he held nothing but a dust. His eyes widened and his grimace turned into a smile.

"Holy shit…" Wolverine said, sitting up from his spot at the camp site.

I know, right?" Sano said gripping the sand in his hand. Wolverine watched the sand drip from Sano's hand as he gleamed with excitement. "I gotta tell Anji!" Sano ran over to Anji's tent and ripped the door open. "He's gone…"

"Well, he did say he had to leave…" Wolverine replied, "speaking of leaving…"

"Yeah, I know." Sano said closing the door to Anji's tent. "I wonder what he's up to?"

"Who knows…" Wolverine said clearing dirt off of his pants, "who gives a shit? You figured out the Futae no Kiwami! Go show that tree a lesson!"

Sano looked up from the tent and smiled at Logan while getting an intense look in his eye. He ran over to the closest tree and reared his arm back and rushed it forward towards the tree. In one arm movement the tree was gone.

"Holy shit…" Wolverine said again.

"I know, right?"


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

The boat our young heroes were traveling on had finally come to port. Looking around the port the gang began to gather their belongings and try to prepare for the real adventure. Yahiko and Karou were the first ones off of the boat. The crowded docks were suffocating and were drive anyone with a claustrophobia problem insane. Yahiko stood next to Karou and began to peer through the large crowd.

"Do you think we'd be lucky enough to find Kenshin here?" Yahiko asked.

"I doubt it Yahiko," replied Karou, "if anything, we may need to catch up with him. I don't think this is going to happen in the blink of an eye."

"I know, I just have no idea where to start." Yahiko added.

"Well, let's go this way first, and if anything looks like it might help, we'll use it."

"Alright, what about those guys?" Yahiko asked, pointing at Marty, Doc, and Nightcrawler. They were all trying to get one of Doc Brown's inventions under control. They were called Gravity Decreasing Boots and one of the local children had gotten a hold of them. The only problem with this invention is that the decrease in gravity wasn't subtle. Every time someone took a step in these boots, the wearer would be launched around ten times as high as they could normally jump. As the little kid continued to bounce around the boat Yahiko smiled and then looked up at Karou for an answer.

"I trust them. I truly believe they are here to help. Kurt has a good heart. I think he's going to see this mission to its end." Karou responded with. She looked up at the boat again and saw Nightcrawler teleport to catch the child. He came down to the deck of the boat with the child and walked him to his parents. Many of the people on the dock stopped to stare, but some, after seeing Nightcrawler save the child, were able to look beyond the blue skin.

"Another one of your untested inventions Doc?" Nightcralwer asked.

Doc smiled and waved and then leaned towards Marty as Nightcrawler turned away, "not anymore." Marty gave Doc a smirk and the two men finally got a hold of Doc Brown's bag.

Nightcrawler found Karou and Yahiko in the mess of people on the docks. Nightcrawler grabbed a hold of the two and teleported them to a location outside of the crowd. As Yahiko and Karou stood, still trying to figure out how what they just did was possible, Nightcrawler vanished again, in a puff of purple and pink smoke. A few seconds later, Marty and Doc were in Nightcrawler's grasp standing in front of Yahiko and Karou. Doc's eyes were as wide as they could be.

"A little warning my Blue friend," Doc started catching his breath, "would be greatly appreciated next time."

"Am I the only one who feels like blowing chunks after that?" Marty asked.

Yahiko started to look into the city. Nightcrawler had teleported the group to a quiet alleyway that looked onto the busy streets. "Where do you think we should start?"

Nightcrawler looks out to the city and starts to try and read the signs. Doc Brown watches Nightcrawler for a few beats and then realizes what he is trying to do. "Here, my boy, try these goggles, definitely a bit higher technology then your normal goggles. Just put them on and look at whatever you want to read," Doc said turning a knob on the side of the goggle, "and don't forget to set it to English." Nightcrawler takes the goggles and gives them a look over for a few seconds. "I know they are a bit unsightly… just try not to use them in the open. We don't want to give anybody any ideas a little too early."

Nightcrawler looks around again and notices a sign that rings a bell. "OniWaBan…" he says to himself, out loud.

"OniWaBan…?" Yahiko asks, "What are you reading?"

"That sign over there, I recognize that name from somewhere…" Nightcrawler answered.

Karou grabbed Yahiko by the shoulder as he was starting to tense up, "so do we…"

A few miles away, Sano and Wolverine were continuing their aimless trek through the forest. Sano was just starting to get a little fed up with the walking.

"This is ridiculous!" Sano exclaimed, "We've been walking for days! We could be going in the wrong direction and we could be completely lost! I thought I was teaming up with the smart guy, the guy everyone wanted on their team. Here I am, out here with you for a week and a half and with nothing to show for it. I bet Yahiko and those guys already found Kenshin! For all we know they've beaten Shishio and are already back in Tokyo eating ice cream or something. God damn't I'm hungry!"

Wolverine looked over at Sano for a second after he finished his little speech. He continued to keep walking.

"Seriously, nothing…you have nothing to say after that?" Sano yelled.

Wolverine looked back at Sano and put his hand up to tell him to quiet down. "Just shut up and keep on walking. I've been following a trail for a day now. I just wasn't sure what it was." Wolverine said, giving Sano an opportunity to stop complaining. "The only thing is…"

"Yeah?" Sano asked, a little anxious.

"I think whoever we're following may know I'm on to them. They keep going in circles and some nights I get their scent from where we came from."

"So they're playing with us?" asked Sano.

"Looks that way, Bub," Wolverine replied, "But as long as I have the freshest scent in front of us, we've got nothing to worry about."

"It's too bad you don't know what Kenshin smells like…" Sano said, a little exasperated.

"Well, if you have the sort of gut feeling I do," Wolverine started, "I'm pretty sure whoever this thing is, knows where your buddy is, if it isn't him already."

Wolverine and Sano continued to put their best foot forward while keeping an eye out for whomever the two were trailing. As they continued through the forest, Sano got a little more excited and began looking over his shoulder constantly. His gut started to twist, not out of fear, but Sano hated to be embarrassed and the last thing Sano wanted, was to be snuck up on, by the only trail that might possibly lead them to Kenshin.

Back at the port town, in Kyoto, Nightcrawler was leading his own anxious group as they headed towards the one building in town they thought could give them a good lead on where to go next. Nightcrawler was the first to head into the building. He, being one of the members of the group who hadn't previously fought the OniWaBan made it an easier decision for him to go first. Nightcrawler quietly peered around a few corners and saw nobody around. All of a sudden a young girl came running around one of the corners complaining about her lost friend.

"I can't believe the jerk ditched me here!" the girl said. "Like I'm not strong enough to help. I bet he just thinks I can't help because I'm a girl. Oooh! I'll show him, next time I see him. I'll do it for him, the OniWaBan, and Aoshi!" Suddenly, she stopped. Nightcrawler knocked into a metal plate of some sort that had barely scratched against the floor. She gazed over her shoulder for a few moments trying to read the air. She was silent waiting to hear another noise. Nightcrawler had the leg he hit the plate with in arm. He slowly released it from its grasp and un-bent the knee at the joint so that he could stand on it again. As soon as his foot hit the ground the girl grabbed her sword and swung around the corner where Nightcrawler was. Her sword jammed into the wall around the corner, surly killing whatever had previously been standing there. The girl strutted down the hall looking around the corner to get her sword. She turned her head only to see her sword stuck in the wall. No body was found where she was sure she would have made impact. She stopped again and grabbed the sword. "I wonder where you could be hiding now?" the girl asked herself. She unjammed the sword from the wall, "maybe behind me!" she screamed as again she swung the sword around her back, this time hearing a loud ear piercing clang. She finished her turn to see the tall blue figure standing before her.

"You are very quick madam," Nightcrawler spoke confidently as the girl pulled her sword back and went in for another lunge. Just as she was about to hit Nightcrawler he teleported away to the girl's backside, "but I am quicker." The girl swung one last time before Nightcrawler vanished before her eyes one more time.

"Who are you?" the girl screamed. Nightcrawler, being able to stick to walls began to scale the ceiling around her.

"I am not an enemy if that's what you mean," Nightcrawler replied with, "I am merely here to ask a few questions and then I will be on my merry little way."

"If you're only here to ask a few questions," The girl began with, still with her weapon at the ready, "why were you just sneaking around the hallways? Why not barge in and ask your question?"

"You seem to be answering your own question with every swing of your sword." Nightcrawler slyly retorted. The girl used Nightcrawler's response to gauge where exactly he was hiding. Once she got a good sense of where he was she gave her sword one last heave. She spun around and whipped her weapon towards Nightcrawler only to see him vanish and reappear a few feet to the left. Nightcrawler let the sword slip past as he got a good hold of the sword and swung it back at the girl. The sword grazed the top of her head as she slunk down to the floor to protect herself. Nightcrawler then launched the two swords he carries on either side of the girl. Just as she realized Nightcrawler was blocking her into a corner Nightcrawler teleported right in front of the girl.

"What do you want?" she screamed again.

"I told you young madam, I am looking for a few friends and I recognized your sign outside," Nightcrawler said calmly. The girl seemed to have given in so Nightcrawler kneelt down in front of her. "I am looking for my two friends Logan, who might present himself as the more feral beast: Wolverine, and Sano, one of my new friends who train in Tokyo."

"Never heard of em" she spat back.

Nightcrawler then put his hand to his chin deciding if it was even worth it to ask about Kenshin. He shrugged and proceeded to ask, "I'm also looking for a young warrior named Ruroni Kenshin."

The girl slowly looked up at Nightcrawler with the most horrible dis-taste. "Is he a friend of yours?" She asked.

"Well, maybe not the closest of friends yet…"

"That two faced, lying, double-crossing, loner got rid of me about an hour ago. I had been following him, and helping him finish his great quest, and then all of a sudden, he's telling me why I can't fight with him, and that I should just go home, and how much safer I would be." The girl pauses for a second, "he thinks I'm weak…"

"Mein freund, you are anything but weak," Nightcrawler said trying to lift the girl's spirit, "I have been fighting and running for the better half of my life: People who had ridiculed me for who I am and what I look like. I've also seen my fair share of battles from where I come from. Trust me, being able to stand up for what you believe in makes you stronger than a lot of people I've met from my time. Let's just say they aren't as welcoming…as you were..."

"You seemed to take care of me pretty easily," the girl said with her head low.

"Das is true," Nightcrawler said with a smile, "but I'm willing to bet you weren't coming for blood on this battle with me." Nightcrawler pulled his two swords from either side of the girl and then the one over her head. He flipped her weapon to face himself so she could grab it and take it back. "I'm Nightcrawler, but my friends and family Kurt."

The girl looked at Nightcrawler's hand, which he shoved towards her in good faith. She grabbed it and gave it a good shake, "My name is Misao, of the OniWaBan, follower of Aoshi."

"Very nice to meet you Misao," Nightcrawler finished with as he gave her a smile. Nightcrawler and Misao finished their introductions and eventually had the entire group invited inside to rest. They had all sat down for some food and a little bit of tea. Most of the room was silent except for a wandering hand of Doc Brown, who couldn't help but lift every object in the room which he would then study for a few seconds.

"Misao…?" Karou asked very gently and quietly. Misao looked over at Karou. "You are a follower of the OniWaBan?"

"Duh," Misao said sarcastically back at Karou, "why else do you think I'm here?" Yahiko began to laugh.

"…Well, I was just wondering if you had ever heard from your kinsmen, The men who you trained with?" Karou asked, again, be slow and gentle.

"No, not yet," Misao spoke, rather confidently, "Aoshi said he would be back some day and I've been here training and waiting for him ever since." Karou was getting ready to tell Misao something before Misao started to speak again. "I sure do miss those guys. They were my family…my everything…"

Karou stuck her hand out to Misao and put one hand under hers with another one over it. Yahiko watched it happen and quickly glared at Karou. He knew these members that their new friend confessed was her own family. Yahiko showed in his eyes that he knew exactly has Karou was about to say; the exact sentence that could ruin the chance at finding Kenshin with this girl's help. Yahiko gritted his teeth, balled up his fist and looked away. Misao caught a glimpse and in her own mind thought it was the boy's jealousy. She twisted her eyebrows to a confused look. Then Karou asked for her attention again, "Misao, I know what happened to the OniWaBan group members that you speak of." Misao turned head as if she were a confused cat and then watched Karou's quivering lips, which could only spell bad news. Misao's eyes began to water, as she waited for the bad news. "We were fighting alongside one another against a common enemy, gone mad…" Misao pulled her other hand up to her mouth to cover her own despair. "There was nothing we could do…" Nightcrawler sat up, and began to listen intently as well, since he was yet to hear this story too. "The man had some sort of machine that threw pieces of metal faster than anything I had ever seen. Your friends were hit first, but Aoshi never gave up on them. We finally got to the man, and even though we hadn't the best relationship with the OniWaBan, a new mutual respect was created that day…"

"Aoshi…is…is he gone too?" Misao asked, with tears rolling down the side of her face. Karou just looked up at Misao with her eyes welled up too. Karou's silence was enough for Misao, her ability to contain her emotions ended with the knowledge of Aoshi's demise. The young girl slumped to the floor and began to sob uncontrollably.

As Karou watched Misao she began to think about Kenshin, realizing how strongly the poor girl must have felt for Aoshi. "Kenshin fought so hard that day…"

Misao looked up, "Kenshin?"

Karou wiped her eyes and then looked at Yahiko for a second. "You know Kenshin?" Karou asked Misao.

Still trying to button down her emotions, Misao continued to sniffle and weep, but mustered enough to answer Karou, "Know him? I just spent the last couple of days following back here, to Kyoto."

Yahiko sprang off the floor and began to dance around the room. Karou, still with tear rolling down her face began to smile, "you wouldn't happen to know where he went, do you?"

"I don't know exactly where he went, but I do know which direction he went." Misao replied.

"That'll be enough for us!" Yahiko said with a grin. Yahiko began to immediately re-pack his belongings as did the rest of the group. Nightcrawler got Marty and Doc Brown up and Karou stayed crossed legged on the floor smiling, hoping that she would see Kenshin again. Nightcrawler walked over to her and put his hand out. She grabbed it and gave Nightcrawler a big hug.

"We couldn't have done this without you," Karou said, still half weeping, "I won't forget this." She pulled Nightcrawler down to her level and kissed him on the cheek.

"Ewe! Gross!" Yahiko shouted.

"Someday Kid, you'll kill for a smooch from a babe like that," Marty advised the little guy.

"Or sacrifice your own life…" Doc said referring to Marty and Doc's adventures.

The group was all ready to go after receiving their information from Misao. They were ready to head out onto the trail after Kenshin, when they suddenly heard Misao yelling from the courtyard of the OniWaBan's training facility. "Wait!" Misao called out. Nightcrawler turned to face her. "Wait for me!" She finally caught up to the group with most her belongings with her on her back. "I want to help you guys. I want help Kenshin out too…and I want to ask him about Aoshi. I'm sure they battled pretty close to the end there. There's no way Aoshi would pass up on a battle with a warrior as great as him."

"It's a pretty large group already Madam," Doc began, "we do want to think about a stealthy retrieval of our friend."

"I kinda have to agree with Doc here guys," Marty replied giving Doc a thumbs up after.

"She'll come," Karou announced. The two girls smiled at each other, showing a mutual respect for how they both feel about their significant other: Misao with Aoshi and Karou with Kenshin. "She can help us navigate and gives us good insight on what Kenshin was up to."

"I like it," Nightcrawler said smiling at Karou. Karou returned the smile and the group headed off into the forest. Now with as good a trail as any, they headed off ready to finally find and help Kenshin.

Deep in the forest Sano and Wolverine began to set up a trap by being as quiet and sly as possible. The two knew that they were being followed and figured the best way to end this would be to catch the poor fool before they became the victims. They began to pass the same area, not giving away the fact that were doing this by continuing to argue with each other about whether they knew where they were going or not. As they passed over the same areas Wolverine and Sano began to devise the trap that could hopefully catch their stalker. After a steady hand with twigs and brush the trap was finally set. Wolverine and Sano were ready to make their final pass. The signal was made and the two jumped into some brush near the trap.

"Do you see him?" Sano asked. Wolverine's eyes peered through the brush. He gave his nose a subtle twitch and sniff.

"Not yet…" Wolverine replied, a little annoyed at the unnecessary noise Sano had just made. The two sat in the brush for a few minutes before Sano got impatient. He began to look in all directions hoping to catch the person first.

"Where is the guy?" Sano said a little too loud. "I thought you said someone was following us!"

Wolverine continued his resilient silence. Sano watched Wolverine for a few more seconds before getting fed up with his companion. "That's it! I'm sick of all this waitin' around crap. They are obviously afraid of us since they keep hiding… Come guy! I'm ready! I'm here! Let's make this happen!" Sano stood in the open brush waiting for a reply from their prey. Seconds past and Sano's eyes began to race. He was beginning to rethink his initial reaction to his impatience. Feeling vulnerable and anxious Sano's knees buckled as he tried to stay ready for an attack. Sano looked down at Wolverine only to see he was gone. Sano hesitated before he spoke "…Logan…?" He heard nothing in response. Sano waited longer and as the seconds continued to roll on it felt as if an eternity had passed since he first stood up. Just as Sano was about to crack; a twig snapped behind him. He spun around to try and catch whoever it was. "Logan…," he whispered, "is that you?"

"Nope!" Sano turned his body to see a boy standing in front of him, with a smile as wide as could be. "Who is Logan?" the boy asked.

"Nobody, nothing," Sano replied, "I was just talking about something else."

"An imaginary friend maybe?" the boy asked, "or maybe that was your companion you had been walking around here with for the few days."

"You're the one who was following us." Sano deduced.

"Here's that rope that you used to create your trap." The boy handed Sano the rope completely ignoring that fact that Sano had said something. Sano looked at the rope in his hand with thorough astonishment. As the boy continued to shock Sano, he never lost his happy mood. Sano was beginning to get frustrated with this unflappable demeanor. He watched the boy brush away the twigs and leaves they used for the trap.

"Who are you?" Sano asked, as the frustration continued to build.

"Me? Who I am is a silly question to ask." The boy replied. "It's who you are that really matters. As I understand it you trained with Master Anji a few days ago, hoping to master one of his fighting techniques."

"What do you mean hoping…" interrupted Sano.

"His skill is not an easy on to master with years of practice, let alone just one week." The boy continued, still without acknowledging Sano's responses. "You are proving to be quite an asset and I can only assume you keep strong company with the friend you've been traveling with."

"Asset…" Sano stepped forward and grabbed the kid by the neck of his shirt, "what the hell are you talking about kid?"

"I'm sorry; let me finally get to the point. I must really be getting on your nerves." The boy replied pulling Sano's hands away from his chest. Keeping his wide smile he apologized, "sorry about that. I am looking for fighters to help me with a big battle coming soon...well, maybe less looking for fighters and more of trying to recruit them."

"Battle…what kind of battle?" Sano asked.

"Consider it an opportunity to pick the right side of good and evil before something chaotic and destructive happens to our great planet." The boy answered.

Being stubborn as always Sano decided he had his mind made up and turned towards the boy to give him a smirk. "I never have been one to turn down a free fight; a chance to prove my strength."

"You won't be alone either. I have already recruited your friend Anji to fight alongside of you. It's just going to be one man you will have to fight, so if you think you're up to it, we'd love to have you!"

Sano looked down at his balled fist and smiled. With all of the confidence in the world Sano looked up at the boy, "Alright let's do it! When do we start? Where is it? Who are we fighting?"

The boy, looking even happier and as pleased as ever opened his mouth to answer Sano, "well, the warrior you will be fighting is actually known as the B-…"

"Hold on a sec Bub," Wolverine interrupted. "I thought we were looking for your friend."

"You must be Logan," the boy said, still smiling. He put his hand out in front of Logan as a greeting so they could shake. Logan looked at the boy's hand for a second and then looked back at Sano.

"What do you say? A good ol' battle, get our knuckles a little bloody, eh?" Sano pleaded.

"I'm usually not gonna be the guy to turn down a good fight…" Wolverine started.

"Oh, come on, it's not like we're gonna go too far, and we have the other search party looking for him too. I'm sure we can take care of this fight lickity split, find my little buddy and be home in no time…I mean, it's not like you're scared…right?" Sano asked, trying to get through to Wolverine. "…right?"

"We would happy to have another fighter, even one as short as you," the boy implored.

"…fine…" Wolverine replied, "But I get to fight first and if this is some sort of trick and we end up fighting you kid," Wolverine said, turning towards the boy, "I have a very short temper and I promise: I will rip you to shreds." The glint in Wolverines eye matched the small boys.

"No tricks Logan," the boy replied, "Like I told Sano here, an opportunity for you to save yourself from future harm."

The boy put his hand towards Wolverine again, waiting patiently the boy looked Wolverine right in the eye. Wolverine looked at Sano and nodded, then proceeded to grab the boys hand and give it as hard a squeeze as he's ever given.

The two men and boy headed off together now making their journey chalk full of surprises to come. They had no idea who the boy is, who their opponent would be, and where they were going. Nightcrawler and his friends were equally lost with their new friend Misao leading them towards Kenshin. Trust is now becoming one of the foremost deciding companions on the journeys, but only the future holds whether these choices will be good or bad.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

"So what's your name little guy?" Sano finally asked.

"It doesn't really matter…" the young boy answered, "but I guess it wouldn't hurt to tell you anyway. My name is Sojiro. I am one of our leader's strongest and most loyal fighters."

"Loyal? Well, I guess as long as he is fighting on the right side you can't really argue with that." Sano said shrugging his shoulders. Wolverine, Sano, and Sojiro had been making their way to a battleground that would apparently be the fight on the "right side of good and evil". After following Wolverine and Sano for about a week, Sojiro recruited the two men to fight alongside of him.

"I just wanna get this over with," Wolverine firmly stated. "Don't forget, I wanna find your bud too. There's a reason I came out here."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Sano said, waving his hand up and down at Wolverine to shush him, "it's not gonna take us long to finish this fight anyway. We'll get to this…palace…thing…that Sojiro is taking us to. Take care of the bad guys, and then we'll head back out on the trail. Not much we can do now anyway. I'm sure whatever trail we should have been on, we are far away from now."

Wolverine looked over at Sano for a second and then closed his eyes for a few paces. He opened his eyes again and just continued to walk forward.

The first day's journey for Misao was a pretty relaxing one. She spent most of the time telling stories about her past with the OniWaBan, with Aoshi as her master, and her recent trip with Kenshin. Karou was so excited to know that Kenshin was at least alright for now. As Misao began to finish her stories, Karou decided to return the favor and tell a few tales of her own. She described her relationship with Kenshin, her training sessions at the dojo, meeting her friends Yahiko and Sano, and then how this new journey began with Nightcrawler, Marty McFly, Doc Brown, and Wolverine. Misao was very intrigued at what a strange and large group that had seem to come together for a single purpose.

"This is totally wild!" exclaimed Misao, "this is probably the coolest thing I've ever been a part of. Most of my training has been used to get some petty gains here and there, but this, what you guys are doing; it's like an actual battle between good and evil!"

"Well," Karou began, "we're actually hoping to avoid that, but I guess it still is pretty cool."

"So then we actually have one person that is excited to be on this journey?" Doc Brown asked dryly.

"Yup!" Misao said with a smile.

"Das is good mein freund!" Nightcrawler said patting Misao on the shoulder.

The group, consisting of six now, is using the knowledge that Misao gained and one of Doc Brown's tracking devices to figure out which direction they should all be going in. After much deliberation, it was decided they would try to find Wolverine and Sano first, and then continue the journey for Kenshin. Doc Brown, fortunately, planted tracking devices on all of his companions so his handheld devices would be their best option for finding Sano and Wolverine. While Doc had his mind partly consumed with making sure his tracker was pointing them in the right direction, the other half of his head was focused on the fact that the time machine they brought with them, to time travel of course, was completely ruined. When they left a barrage of bullets sprayed the backside of the car draining it of its fluids rendering the car useless. Since Marty is one of Doc Brown's oldest and most trustworthy friends, Marty became the only person fortunate enough to have this knowledge.

At every stop that the group made, Marty and Doc found time to separate themselves from the group and try to figure out a way to resolve the problem. The last time the two met, Doc thought he had it all figured out. He hadn't told Marty what the plan was yet and since it had been a day from the time of the discovery, Marty was getting impatient with Doc's subsequent silence.

"Look Marty, we just haven't had the time to speak alone," Doc confessed, "I was planning on telling you the first chance I got. It's not like we're in any hurry now anyway."

Marty stared at Doc for a second and then pulled his hair from front to back with his hand. "You know, if we don't figure this out soon Doc, we could be stuck here forever. Let's not forget that we aren't just in the past. We're in Japan!" The other four people in the group looked over at Marty and Doc. Marty waved, "It's exciting…being in Japan…" The group stared at Marty for a few seconds and then went back to talking.

"This is why I'm never in a hurry to discuss secrets with you Marty," Doc said with a very loud whisper while waving his arms. "Look, I already told you that this plan involves Nightcrawler, and I would be very impressed it you could have figured out what my plan is with the allotted time since I first told you." Marty and Doc stared at each other for a second as Doc waited to see if Marty figured it out. "I would have been…"

"Come on Doc!" Marty pleaded.

"Alright, Alright…" Doc said, calming Marty, "the plan is to use our blue friend. When we used the mutant amplifier we increased Nightcrawler's abilities."

"Well yeah," Marty started, still working everything around in his head, "to travel across the world, not necessarily to travel in time."

"Ah, but then I'm sure you aren't familiar how this mutant amplifier works," Doc said holding his index finger in front of him.

"Nope, not really…" Marty confessed.

"Me neither Marty. That's the beauty of it!" Doc started walking back and forth as his mind began to spin with ideas, using his arms to do half of his talking to started to let Marty in on his madness, "since no two mutant are created equally, we can never assume we know how this works. How do we know that Nightcrawler is even aware of the extent of his powers? For all we know Nightcrawler's father could travel through different portals of time and space, possibly even different dimensions!"

"You're reaching pretty far there Doc…" Marty alleged.

"Well, I'm reaching for more than just that Marty, maybe a little bit of hope."

"I hear ya Doc, we gotta start somewhere."

"It's not our last option Marty," Doc started, but then paused for a second, "but as each second passes it is beginning to look that way."

"This is seriously getting heavy Doc…" Marty declared.

"What is it you kids say?" Doc asked, "Totally…"

"Everything alright here, gentleman?" Nightcrawler asked coming up from behind the two.

"Define 'alright'…" Doc proclaimed. Marty immediately elbowed Doc in the side. The two started to bicker and argue a bit with Nightcrawler standing a few feet in front of them now.

"That's it!" Nightcrawler snapped, pulling the two men apart, "You two have been up to something since we got here. Sneaking around, dodgy interactions, going out of your way to avoid us. What is going on here?"

Marty and Doc looked at each other, both a little messed up after their scuffle. Doc's hair was a little scruffier than usual. Marty pulled his clothes straight on his shoulders and over his chest. Doc proceeded to fix his wild hair. "I guess it's time we let you in on our little secret."

Nightcrawler put a confused look on his face as Doc Brown and Marty started to tell Nightcrawler their plan.

It had been a few hours since Sojiro, Wolverine, and Sano had acquainted themselves with each other. Sojiro had spent most of this time explaining how great and strong their master is. Wolverine had blocked most of it out, while Sano consumed most of his thoughts with how a fight would go down with the so called "master".

"Do you think, well, after we're done fighting of course," Sano began, "the Master would consider having a fight with me; just a little spar to see where we both stand?"

"I'm sure he'd be all for it," Sojiro replied, still showing off his grin, "you just might not like the result. Our master won't want just a sparring match; he'll probably go all the way with your battle."

This last sentence caught Wolverine's attention. Sano just kept his teeth gritted as he showed a small smirk, while also punching thin air while he fought an invisible opponent. Wolverine finally spoke up: "all the way?"

Sano kept his "fight" going while Sojiro turned to Wolverine to answer, "To the death." Wolverine's face went from a strong grimace, likely he usually used in standoffs, to slight confusion. "Don't worry about that though, I'm sure if you fight by his side for this battle, he might not initiate the fight himself."

"What the hell does that mean?" Wolverine asked.

"That he won't kill you without reason…" Sojiro finished with. He turned away from Wolverine and began to walk away. Wolverine watched Sano as he continued to follow Sojiro without batting an eye. His first instinct was to attack Sojiro or just leave, but he was afraid of what might happen to his companion. He bucked up, put his strong grimace back on, and put his hands back into fists. After a few seconds, Wolverine had his anger under control. He released his fists and slowly let his lips relax on his face.

"Hey, Logan," Sano began, as he continued to fight an imaginary person, "we haven't really had a good fight since that first night." Sano looked back at Logan who was still trying to calm himself. He realized that Wolverine wasn't paying any attention. He slowed down a bit to let Wolverine catch up. He patted Logan on the front of his shoulder, "Logan, what's up man?" Wolverine glanced up at Sano again. He put his arm in front of Sano to slow him down for a second. He was trying to get a little separation from Sojiro so they could discuss what had just transpired.

"Do you trust this guy?" Wolverine asked.

"Who, Sojiro?" Sano replied with, "not really…" Wolverine shook his head and gave Sano a confused look. Sano continued, "I really don't trust anybody, I'm just along for the fight."

"You've got a problem there Bub" Wolverine replied with.

"It would be less of a problem if I was as strong and quick as Kenshin," Sano laughed.

Sojiro looked back as Sano began to describe his buddy Kenshin. The young, slender, warrior with the cross scar on his face was one of the few people Sano had ever met that he considered to free from selfish desires or thoughts. Not even in a sense for a religion or god. He did it all because he was genuinely a good person. Sano described a man who one would think is a casual fighter. One who is mild tempered and doesn't fall too far from his conscience and morals. The fact is though; Kenshin is probably one of the greatest, most deadly warriors to ever walk the Earth. As he fought in the Meiji era, Kenshin received his nickname, the Battosai, which during the Meiji era, was a name to fear. The warrior was able to clear entire throngs of soldiers without a threat of breaking a sweat. Through the many lives lost by his own hands, Kenshin swore to change his ways. He changed his sword to a reverse blade and promised to never take another life again. In the time that Sano had known Kenshin, he had seen his fair share of battles. While it is said that Kenshin loses some of his intensity while trying not to kill again, Sano was still yet to see Kenshin lose.

"Well, here we are, my friends," Sojiro announced.

Wolverine and Sano searched through the trees to see any sign of a building nearby. "Where is 'here'?" Sano asked.

The two turned to Sojiro only to see him step through some thick brush. The two followed Sojiro and got their first sight of the Palace that this battle would take place.

"What do you think?" Sojiro asked, giving his two companions a second to soak it all in.

"That's huge!" Sano exclaimed. Wolverine gave it a once over and started walking towards the building. Sojiro joined Wolverine on his walk while Sano's jaw dropped so far, it nearly fell off. Sano pulled his jaw back up to his upper lip and started to follow Sojiro and Wolverine. "Hey kid, didn't you say that Anji is here?"

"Yup! Did you want to go and say hi to your friend?" Sojiro asked.

"Well, I guess it would be nice to say hi," Sano said trying to hide his excitement. He looked at Wolverine for a second and then ran into the building. Wolverine looked at Sojiro for a second only to see that creepy smile crawl across his face.

"Remember what I said to you yesterday, Bub," Wolverine warned, "this turns ugly, you're gonna be all messed up."

"I'll have to warn you Logan," Sojiro advised Wolverine, "I'm not such a slouch with the sword myself."

"That a threat?" Wolverine probed.

Sojiro answered with a question, "We're still on the same team, aren't we?"

Wolverine looked to the ground and shut his eyes with force, "I'm not gonna keep playin' these games kid."

"Everything is a game Logan," Sojiro told Wolverine, "it's a matter of being aware of the rules when the time comes."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Wolverine tested.

"It means, maybe you are on the right track now," Sojiro started, "but maybe there is a rule you are not yet aware of. Patience and knowledge might help you before…"

"Before what?" Wolverine snarled as he grabbed the kid by the neck of his shirt.

"Before its game over." Sojiro pushed Wolverine's hands off of his shirt and began to walk towards the extremely large building. Wolverine was getting fed up with everyone walking away from him before he got all of the answers he was looking for. He released his claws and began to charge after Sojiro.

"Enough of this shit!" Wolverine growled. He leaped through the air, claws first. He was nearly in range to make contact with Sojiro. He inched closer in mere milliseconds until Sojiro felt his presence and pulled his sword from its sheath. He connected with all six of Wolverine's claws from the blunt side and kicked him back. Wolverine, filled with rage, began to charge at Sojiro again. Sojiro's face turned to fear as Wolverine jumped in the air and began to spin towards Sojiro. Sojiro dove under Wolverine and tried to slice through his upper body. Wolverine caught the thick part of his boot with Sojiro's sword and used it to leap over Sojiro's attack. The two got settled again and ready for another attack.

"This is pointless Logan, we are too evenly matched," Sojiro tried to explain to Wolverine.

"Why don't you let that pretty little sword of yours meet the sharp part of my claws," Wolverine advised, "then we'll see how evenly matched we are."

"Unfortunately Logan, this is fun, but it is neither mine nor your choice as to whether this fight will continue." Sojiro said putting his sword away. Sojiro began to walk away from a perplexed Wolverine again.

"Where are you running to?" Wolverine screamed, "We're not done here!"

"I'm afraid you are." A voice said from behind Wolverine. As strong as Wolverine has ever felt, a punch came to the side of his head. As he began to lose consciousness, Wolverine felt a bind go over his hands and another over his head. Everything went black for Wolverine as he was dragged into the Palace by one of Sojiro's thugs. Two men stepped forward where Wolverine had lain.

"Who do you think that was?" the smaller man asked the larger.

"Well, he has been traveling with Sano for most of this journey." The larger man answered, "I guess Sano was just a little too thick headed to see what was up."

"I can't believe Sano came here," the smaller one said, "He should know better… how dangerous this is."

"We need you to block out those thoughts for now. Don't forget, we are on a mission. We are here to destroy Shishio."

"I know Saito," the smaller man said, "but I won't abandon my friends for the sake of this mission." The smaller man began to walk towards the Palace.

The larger man, named Saito, stepped towards the Palace, "we just need to keep on guard. Be prepared for anything in there." The two continued to walk towards the Palace together. "And Kenshin, you're not done when you're done with Shishio."

The warrior Kenshin looked towards Saito and gave him a good confident smile, "then we shall finish this as fast and as clean as possible then." He turned back to the Palace and began to race time towards the Palace. Saito put his own smirk on his face and then began to run after Kenshin. The two disappeared somewhere on the Palace as their own journey to defeat Shishio was just beginning to get juicy.

Silence became time's friend as the two began to grow outside of the Palace. Just as the atmosphere was getting about as thick and silent as it could be, a rustle through the tree was heard.

"I believe our good friends are right…over…here…" Doc said as his eyes tried to absorb the entire sight that is this palace, "Great Scott…"

"This looks like the kind of place Sano would get lost in," Yahiko cracked.

"I believe we have a goal then, mein freunds." Nightcrawler added.

"We actually have to go in there?" Marty asked.

"If we can find a way." Karou answered.

"We've got to start somewhere." Misao thought aloud.

"Enough with the one liner's everyone," Doc said, "now let's get going. I have a pretty good idea that there might be an entrance on the South side of this place."

"Where'd you get that from?" Marty asked.

"Well, there are a few carriages parked over there, and I'm only guessing that if someone is rich enough to pay for this castle, they are rich enough to park where the side door is rather than walk to the front."

"Good point," Marty retorted.

The group started to walk towards the carriages when Doc decided to add to his deduction, "and if all else fails, we can always use Kurt to get us inside."

The group got to the side door and as the last leg had made its last step into the building, the door was shut. Sano, now somewhere in the Palace, is looking for Anji. Wolverine had been knocked unconscious and dragged into the Palace and if he hasn't been locked in a cell yet, was well on his way. Nightcrawler was now currently leading his group to find Sano and Wolverine while Kenshin and Saito were on a more direct course to find Shishio to begin the battle to end all battles.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

As our group of heroes expands, we now have finally met Kenshin Himura. As he was previously known as the Battosai during the civil war era in Japan, he now has decided to join up with Saito, a military officer, to take down Shishio. On their eventual discovery of Shishio's Palace they walked in on a battle between one of Shishio's thugs, Sojiro, and someone they recognized to be a companion of one of their friends, Sano. The two men had just missed their friend Sano, but were just in time to watch Wolverine, Sano's companion, get belted on the side of the head and captured.

As the two men made a stealthy chase after Shishio's thugs our other heroes were also on the tail of Wolverine and Sano. Using Doc Brown's tracking device, they had followed the forest all the way to Shishio's Palace. As they had initially decided to use this method to find Sano and Wolverine before they went after Kenshin, little did they know that they would all be meeting in the same place anyways. Nightcrawler, leading the group with Doc Brown's locators, took the group to the back entrance of Shishio's Palace.

The group was ready to enter when Nightcrawler turned to see Misao a few steps behind everyone, staring up into one of the windows of the stronghold. Nightcrawler walked over to her and grabbed her arm. "Is everything okay fraulein?" Misao barely moved her lips as she answered Nightcrawler.

"I thought I..." she started, and then turned to Nightcrawler, "I thought I saw Aoshi in there." Her eyes began to well up.

"Your old Master?" Nightcrawler asked.

"Yes..."

Deep inside in the Palace of Shishio, Wolverine was being placed into his cell. As the two men, who were put in charge of Wolverine, struggled to keep him down, they finally reached the cell where he would be placed.

"So when are you bums gonna take this damn sack off of my head?" Wolverine asked. The two men put some stronger bands around his arms and tied a string to the bag on his head. "I can smell both of you. Don't think I don't recognize you Anji." Anji looked at his comrade and proceeded to pull the sack off of Wolverine's head.

"It's for your own good Logan." Anji warned, "You don't understand the power that these men possess."

"What do you mean?" Wolverine questioned, "they brain-washin' you?"

"Not exactly Logan," Anji started, "there just comes a time in a great battle like this when you must decide which side you are on."

"Stop wasting your time with this fool," the other man piped in, "he is but a pawn while we now have larger pieces making their way through the Palace now. Don't act like you didn't see Kenshin running around outside."

"Kenshin…" Wolverine whispered while the two men started to argue.

"I did see him, but you know as well as I, that Shishio must be the one to kill him. Neither myself, or you would be allowed to end his life." Anji responded with. Wolverine continued to look around his cell. He unsheathed a claw on each hand and began to use one to life his body off of the ground while using the other to slowly get through his bands.

"Speak for yourself, chump," the other man spat back, "I'm not here for Shishio, I'm here to kill Kenshin. Shishio knows that and wouldn't let me stay if he wasn't okay with it."

"You know better than that Aoshi," Anji answered, "if you kill Kenshin, you're next. This shouldn't be a fight to the last man standing. We need to work together. That's why we were created to be a team. Right now, we need to follow orders, and then everything else will work itself out afterwards."

"I don't know you very well old man," Aoshi started, "but you can't be alright with this. As every second passes, that fool gets a tighter grip on your mind. Give it up!" Aoshi squeezed his fist, "I'm getting' out of here. You're wasting your own time, as well as mine!"

"Don't be so blind Aoshi," Anji tried to warn one last time, "you speak of pawns and chess pieces, but if you continue on this path, you will become Shishio's pawn. He will have his way with you if you give him enough reason."

Aoshi seemed to let this information sink in a bit, but then smiled at Anji. "I'll take my chances," he mocked. Aoshi turned to face the door and was met by a short yellow surprise.

"I take it you didn't consider the fact that I may figure into your chances," Wolverine said, as he surprised Aoshi. Aoshi turned to the cell and saw the bars had been sawed off.

"How did you tear down those bars?" Aoshi asked. The answer he got wasn't the one he was looking for. To jabs to his gut caught Aoshi by surprise, but wouldn't be the final blow. "That's it?" Aoshi asked with a bit of cocky confusion.

"Nope," Wolverine answered without blinking an eye. He tore into his knuckles as he let all six of his claws chase Aoshi's back by going straight through his gut. "Your plan on killing Kenshin means I had to change my plans." Wolverine pulled his claws out of Aoshi's gut and let his blood spill on the floor. Aoshi hit the ground with a sickening thud. Anji watched Wolverine's claws suck back into his skin. He stared in awe of the savage beast. "You gonna run, bub?"

"Logan," Anji replied shaking his head, "You should know that this cannot end well for you. If it is not I who will destroy you, then it will be one of the other dozen men standing behind you…" Wolverine turned his head over his shoulder and then back to Anji. He gave Anji a smile and nod.

"You gonna stick around for the show?" Wolverine probed.

"As you can probably understand, I would love to be the one to defeat you, but I have other pressing matters to attend to." Anji answered with a smirk, trying not to show his own fright of the efficiency of Wolverine's kill. "I'm sure you heard Aoshi and I discussing your friend Kenshin being here." The men behind Wolverine stood at the ready and began to inch closer and closer, "you know, I just can't believe I couldn't sense that your journey was to find Kenshin. I felt something was suspicious, but for some reason, I trusted you two."

"Maybe that trust doesn't have to end Anji…" Wolverine pleaded, "Maybe you could join our side."

"How this will end is yet to be determined Logan," Anji responded with, "but I'm afraid now," he said while motioning towards the guards, "just doesn't seem like the right time." Wolverine pulled his claws back out and turned towards the guards. "I think you can handle yourself, anyway."

Anji walked out of the door behind the guards and looked back at Logan one last time. The guards seemed to consume him, because with his short stature, Wolverine had all but disappeared. Anji shut the door and began to walk away.

"Which one of you guys wants to die first?" Wolverine asked. "You know, I've fought a much larger group than this before. It's just too bad you guys haven't figured out how to use explosives yet." One of the men pulled out a bomb that had a very short fuse. "Now it's interesting."

All at once the men jumped on Wolverine. A faint roar was heard from the bottom of the pile. Wolverine began to flail and fall into a berserker rage. He ripped through arms, clothes, legs, and eventually found his way to some stomachs and necks. Some of the men tried to flank Wolverine as another two came at him from the front. Wolverine took one hit to the gut, but followed it up by punching straight through that soldier's skull. Wolverine's claws pierced the skull cleanly and easily as he helped the man to sleep, maybe a little quicker than he would have wanted. The men that flanked Wolverine were about to get theirs. Wolverine took the man connected to his claws on his left hand and whipped the lifeless body towards the men flanking. A few men came from behind Wolverine and grabbed both of his arms. Struggling to keep his arms under control, one of the men picked up a wooden chair to smash over his head. The strike was made and the soldiers watched the vicious animal's head droop. A couple seconds later his head was back at attention as he used all of his strength to pull the men holding his arms into each other. His claws, being free again, celebrated by creating a bright red pool between the cracks on the floor. One after another, bodies lay slain across the room. Wolverine only had one man left, and luckily for Wolverine, it was the one with the bomb. The gutsy goon lit the fuse and began to charge at Wolverine while screaming. The soldier strapped the bomb to his own body and was clever enough to strap Wolverine to his belt. The bomb was about to explode and the man wrapped his arms around Wolverine trying to push Wolverine out of the window. Once the two men got close enough to the window Wolverine tried to get the man to release him. Pulling the man's arms off of his side Wolverine threw the goon out the window. The bomb was about to explode when Wolverine noticed the clip that was around his waist and the soldiers belt buckle. Wolverine took his claws to it and before the man could fall he grabbed what was left of the hook. The man stared at Wolverine with an evil glint in his eye and then started to laugh.

"I don't know what you're laughing at Bub," Wolverine said as he took his claws to the man's arm ripping it through tendons and muscle. The arm held on tight, but the body began to fall from the top of the Palace. Wolverine ducked his head back into the room and the bomb finally went off. A massive explosion could be heard outside of the window and the entire building began to shake.

Nightcrawler felt the tremor from across the building. Everyone he was with stopped and they all looked at each other. "What was that?" Nightcrawler asked.

"It sounded loud, too loud to be good, I mean," Doc answered.

"We better get moving then," Yahiko stated.

Nightcrawler looked down at the tracking device that they were using to track Wolverine and Sano. Nightcrawler stared at the tracker for a second and then looked at the group. "He's gone…"

"Who," Doc replied, "What do you mean...?"

"Logan…his marker is gone…" Nightcrawler said turning the tracker to the rest of the group.

"Oh shit!" Marty yelled, "Was that him? Did Logan just blow up?"

"Does Logan have some sort of combustible ability?" Doc asked Nightcrawler. Nightcrawler just raised one of his eyebrows in confusion. "Can he self-destruct? Blow up?"

"No," Nightcrawler said. Then he gave that question some more thought, "Not since I've known him…"

Doc turned to Marty, "He might be okay."

"I like the confidence there Doc," Marty said.

"Don't worry about Logan," Nightcrawler started, "he's been involved in worse things than explosions."

"If he was involved," Doc began, "it's possible that just the tracking device was damaged, however…"

"Yeah…?" Marty asked.

"However…all of our tracking devices are powered by our own bodies." Doc said slowly.

"Which means…?" Marty said trying to push Doc to spit out a real answer.

"His heart would have had to stop…" Doc said somberly. The group stopped for a few extra beats as they all seemed to let the previously stated news sink in.

"Pick up your heads," Nightcrawler stated, "this just means we have more work to do in a shorter period of time. We should split up." He pointed out who would go with whom. Keeping all the groups happy, Nightcrawler decided to split the groups up accordingly: Marty and Doc in one direction, Misao and Yahiko in the opposite, and Nightcrawler and Karou heading between the two groups. The three groups went their separate ways. Marty and Doc were on the lookout for Sano; Nightcrawler and Karou were headed towards the explosion to find Wolverine, and Misao had a little surprise for Yahiko.

"Why are we going this way?" Yahiko complained.

"Because, I think I saw someone earlier that could help us," Misao replied.

"That's not what Kurt told us to do." Yahiko whined.

"He'll be fine with it," Misao responded, "besides, he didn't really give us a real job anyway. They are out looking for your friends and we were told to do a patrol on the West side of the building. What does that even mean anyway?"

"I think it means, we're not supposed to go looking for your imaginary friend!" Yahiko spat back.

"We'll be fine, you big baby," Misao teased, "Now I saw him upstairs, so…" Misao stated as she led Yahiko to a staircase. The two followed the staircase to the top of a tower.

Yahiko grabbed Misao on her skirt to get her attention. "This is where Karou and Kurt went."

"Oh gosh, you're right. They were looking for the explosion." Misao held her hand up to her mouth to show her worry. "I hope that Aoshi wasn't involved."

"What?" Yahiko yelled, "We're looking for Aoshi? I don't think so little girl."

"Little girl?" Misao asked while measuring Yahiko with her hands. Yahiko's face got beet red as he pushed her hands back to her side.

"I don't want to tell you this, since you love the guy so much…" Yahiko harassed giving Misao a red face, "but we have way more important things to take care of."

"You know, just because Kenshin is more important than Aoshi to you doesn't mean everyone else feels the same way," Misao said, "he is my Kenshin. He was my master and leader and he would have given the OniWaBan the world if he could…" Yahiko made a small grunt and then looked down at the ground. "I can do this alone Yahiko, but I don't want to leave you."

"Humph," Yahiko whined as he hit his body against the wall, "Fine…"

"Yeah!" yelled Misao, "Alright, let's get going then. Keep quiet in case we run into Kurt and Karou."

The two headed up the staircase, down a short hallway in the tower. Smoke was still clearing from the explosion as Misao and Yahiko pushed through the cloud of debris. They got up to the room where the explosion had taken place. There were over a dozen bodies scattered across the floor.

"Oh no…" Misao whispered. Bricks were still falling as the debris from the explosion continued to settle. Misao noticed Nightcrawler and Karou on the other side of the room looking out a giant hole in the wall.

Nightcrawler leaned over to Karou, "do you see anything?"

"Not from here," she replied.

"I guess we should head down then…" Karou grabbed a hold of Nightcrawler. Just before he teleported out of the room, he glanced back for a second. He could tell he was being watched and noticed a mirror in his peripherals. He stared at it for a second and saw the outline of Misao and Yahiko. Nightcrawler knew why Misao had ventured into the tower and continued to teleport to the fallen rocks at the base of the building. Karou and Nightcrawler went through the debris and found nothing.

Yahiko and Misao began their search through the bodies flopping them one over the other. They went through face after face trying to find one that is familiar. After a few minutes Misao sat on the ground and let out a big sigh. "At least this means he's safe…" She looked around the room again at some of the faces. "I wonder what happened here…" She sat in silence for a few more seconds. She turned around to look for Yahiko. Once to the left and then turned again to the right. "Yahiko?" she asked nervously. She got up and turned around. She spun her body around a few times and then saw a figure in the debris still clouding the air. "Yahiko?" she said, asking the figure who it was. She got closer to the figure and let out a big gasp, "Who are you?"

"Well, there a few different ways for me to answer this question," the dark shadow answered, "I could tell you the murderer of you friend, your future murderer, or I could tell you my name. My name is Shishio, but you might know me a bit better as your friend's murderer. He slung a limp body towards Misao.

"Yahiko!" Misao screamed, "you killed him, you monster!" Misao pulled out her sword and stood ready for battle with the dark shadow.

"Killing people usually comes with the territory of being a murderer," the cocky villain taunted. "But don't worry; you'll be joining him shortly."

Nightcrawler and Karou, who were still going through the rubble at the base of the building, heard a loud shrill scream from the tower. Nightcrawler looked over at Karou and held out his arm. She jumped into his arms and the two teleported back to the top of the tower. When the two got to the top of the tower they saw a figure leave the room. The two recognized the scream as Misao's and began to search the room. The dust was almost all finally clear giving them the best possible chance to look through the room.

"Oh no…" Karou whispered. Nightcrawler ran over to Karou's side.

"What is it? Is it Misao?"

"No…it's Yahiko…" Karou grabbed Nightcrawler and began to sob. Nightcrawler looked down at the boy's limp body. He looked at the face of the limp body and put his arms around Karou's head. The two went to their knees as Nightcrawler began to console her. "What is going on here…? Where are we?" Karou asked Nightcrawler.

Petting the back of her head Nightcrawler continued to search the room for Misao and other answers. "I don't know, but we have a new plan." Karou let her crying eyes up from Nightcrawler's shoulder, "we have got to find Marty and Doc, now!"

The two stood up and continued to hold each other tight. Just before they were about to teleport away Nightcrawler noticed one of the bodies move on the floor of the tower. He let Karou go and ran up to the body. He picked up the body and recognized the face. "Misao!" he yelled. He cupped her head and held her in his lap. Her breathing was light and still labored when she could get a breath out. Nightcrawler noticed a wound on her gut and pulled her clothing aside to get a better look at the wound.

"How does she look?" Karou asked. Nightcrawler stared up at Karou for a second and then shook his head. Out of frustration Karou started to yell: "What is going on here? We have to get out of here! Whatever we are doing, we weren't prepared for this!"

Nightcrawler grabbed Karou's hand to calm her down. "We can't abandon out friends." Karou slunk back down to the ground.

"What do we do?" Karou asked.

"We find Doc and Marty. They probably already have a lead on Sano. To be honest, I don't really know where we go from there."

Misao was finally gaining some consciousness. Nightcrawler felt her take a deeper breath and turned his attention to her. "What happened here?"

"I…I don't know…" she replied. She then gave the situation some thought as her eyes began to widen, "Shishio!" she exclaimed. "He was here. We fought briefly, but he beat me. Just before he was about to…someone came and rescued me…they scared him off…"

"Maybe it was Wolverine…?" Karou said, looking towards Nightcrawler.

"Maybe…" Nightcrawler stated, "Did you see what he looked like?"

"No…" Misao answered, "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize fraulein, you did great!" Nightcrawler said with a smile. Karou reached into a bag she brought and had a case of bandages and cream to help speed the healing process. Nightcrawler watched Karou apply the bandages and cream as he readied himself to give Karou some information. "Someone needs to keep an eye on her." Karou looked up with tears building in her eyes. "I can try and teleport around the building a little bit faster than we can run. I can find Marty and Doc, use the tracker to find Sano, and then I'll come back with everyone to get you two out of here.

"What about Logan?" Karou asked.

"I love him, but he'll be fine. There isn't a bomb that can keep his heart from stopping," Nightcrawler answered while motioning to the hole in the wall. Karou smiled at Nightcrawler for a second. "Will you be okay here by yourself?" Karou nodded at Nightcrawler. He pulled all of his things together and was ready to teleport. Karou grabbed his hand and turned him slowly back in her direction. She looked deep into his eyes and slowly inched closer to him. Her lips touched his as she grabbed the top of his shoulders while wrapping underneath them. Karou pulled Nightcrawler closer and put her cheek on his chest.

"Be careful Kurt…" She held him for a few extra seconds.

Nightcrawler pulled her back and smiled at her for a second. Karou put her arms at her side and then watched Nightcrawler disappear. She sank down to her knees and put her attention back on Misao.

Across the Palace Kenshin and Saito were discussing their next move.

"We haven't seen Shishio or your two friends," Saito told Kenshin, "how do we know they are still here?"

"We don't Saito," answered Kenshin, "but we need to keep looking. You know as well as I, that Shishio isn't going to run from a fight. We may think we have the element of surprise, but he probably knew we were here the second we stepped foot in here. Shishio lives for our fight. He knows I will be a real test for him. That's all we can really hope for. If he has truly lost that desire, then it may already be too late."

Saito looked at Kenshin for a second and nodded subtly. "We should keep going down this hallway. Judging by the depth of your friend Sano's inability to realize where he is, he probably is headed around here in a straight line. This was the hallway I saw him head down when we first got here. I'm sure that large explosion didn't disturb his one track mind at all." Kenshin glared at Saito for a second.

"Then we'll continue to head this way." Kenshin replied.

Further up the way, Marty and Doc were still looking for Sano.

"You know, this tracker would be a lot more useful if it had the layout of this Palace on it," Marty complained.

"Well Marty, if I had known we would be coming back in time again, I would have included a GPS…" Doc replied rather dryly.

"I'm sorry Marty; I'm just getting a little frustrated. Even if we find our friends here, we find this great warrior, we get back with Nightcrawler, we fight off this other great warrior, we all return to Tokyo, we still don't know if we can make it back to the Present."

Marty was beginning to visibly show his wear and tear. His lack of energy was painted across his face. "Well, at least Sano's dot is really close…" While Marty continued to pace down the hallway he walked face first into a wall as he spoke to Doc Brown.

"He's here!" Doc exclaimed. "How do we get on the other side of this wall?" Marty and Doc looked at every inch of the wall, not seeing an outlet. The wall was just the beginning of a dead end in this hallway. Marty and Doc continued to feel the wall from corner to corner. Knocking and pushing trying to see if there was a secret way to get to the other side.

"Come on, Doc, haven't you ever seen a movie," Marty said, confidently marching to a candlestick and pulling it. Marty gave it another tug and pulled it straight off the wall.

Doc Brown put his hand on a sculpture next to the wall to help keep his legs standing. "I guess we'll have to keep looking." The sculpture started to sink into the ground a few inches opening up the floor underneath them. Falling a few stories, Marty and Doc heard a loud "Ow" when they hit the floor. Doc dusted himself off and stood up. He helped Marty up and then tried to find a flashlight so he could see who they landed on.

"Sano?" Marty asked getting to his feet.

"Who is this?" Sano asked.

"It's me, Marty, and Doc." Marty replied, "We've been looking for you for days now."

"Huh? How did you find me?" Sano continued.

"Well, it's kinda hard to explain, but we used this." Marty answered. Marty shoved the tracking device in Sano's face. The screen was flashing saying, "Target Found".

"I'm just going to accept it so we can move on," Sano said ready to get out of this trap.

"That's a good decision Sano, from what I can tell, we don't have a lot of ways to get out of here." Doc stated. He turned on a light and began to look around the entire room. "Yes! Just as I suspected…"

"What?" asked Marty.

"There's no way out of here."

"Well, I was hoping someone would find me, but you two pretty much showed me how well that idea can work." Sano said sitting back on the ground.

As Nightcrawler continued to look through the building for Doc and Marty he finally came across the long hall way where they were struck by the trap. The only problem was that he wasn't alone. Two people he was yet to meet were at the end of the hall looking for a way around this wall. Kenshin and Saito pressed against every brick and across all corners. Nothing happened. Nightcrawler looked down a different hallway and then back over to where Kenshin and Saito were. This time, however, they were gone. Nightcrawler's jaw dropped since he just missed the way to get to the other side of the wall. He ran up to the wall and began to repeat the same maneuvers that Kenshin and Saito were making, pressing every brick and every corner. He looked at the ground and saw the candlesticks on the ground from where Marty had pulled them earlier. Obviously at the time Nightcrawler had no idea that was Marty's doing. He kept searching the area and eventually found the statue. He gave a smile and pushed the statue. Nightcrawler stood confidently waiting for the wall to swing open when he suddenly realized the floor had opened up underneath him. Falling unexpectedly resulted in Nightcrawler bouncing off the walls around him. He snapped to attention after the third hit to his head and tried to grab the walls around him. Before he had a chance to slow himself down he hit the ground beneath him.

"Great Scott!" Doc shouted, "What luck!"

"Wow. I can't believe we were all dumb enough to fall for this trap…" Marty stated.

Rubbing his head Nightcrawler slowly began to stand up with the help of Doc Brown and Marty. "Who is that?" Nightcrawler asked, pointing to Kenshin, Sano and Saito.

"Those, my good blue pal," Doc started, "Are the gentlemen we have been looking for." Nightcrawler looked up at Doc for a second with a big smile.

Nightcrawler walked over to Sano hoping to be introduced. This was maybe the first sign of good news as the group lost one, but gained two more. Wolverine was still nowhere to be found and Karou was hoping to nurse Karou back to good health. They all knew the journey was not over yet. The great battle between Shishio and Kenshin was still inching closer and closer.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The heroes were finally done with their introductions and Nightcrawler was ready after teleporting his large group out of the trap. The group had finally gotten a hold of Kenshin and received a surprise addition of Kenshin's companion, Saito. Sano wasn't too happy with the sight of Saito, since the two were pretty well known for butting heads whenever they spent too much time together. For now, they were going to try and let bygones be bygones. Nightcrawler gathered the group together to let them know the situation. He was already up to the point where Misao was attacked by Shishio.

"Karou is with her now…" Nightcrawler started.

"Ms. Karou is alone?" Kenshin asked excitedly, "Why is she here? She could get hurt!"

"It was her choice," Nightcrawler answered, "she's a pretty touch girl." Nightcrawler finished his statement with a smile until confronted by Kenshin again.

"It isn't safe for her to be here!" Kenshin added, "I already lost one of my friends to this monster!"

"It was his choice Kenshin," Nightcrawler said, trying to talk to the young warrior once more, "they came here to help you. By the look of things, you weren't doing too well till I showed up anyway. If you like, I can put you back in that hole, and we can see how long it takes you to claw out."

Kenshin had never really been so violent with strangers, but then again, Karou was usually safe and sound at her dojo. Saito was very unhappy with the whole situation. He was convinced that Kenshin would be unable to unlock the Battosai, the manslayer. The side of Kenshin they needed to defeat Shishio. "We don't need this Kenshin, we still have work to do," he spat at Kenshin. "Now that we're out, we should find Shishio. These kids can handle themselves."

Kenshin, getting more and more frustrated with the people surrounding him, glared at Saito. Nightcrawler grabbed Kenshin's arm to get his attention back on him. "She needs to see you Kenshin."

Kenshin shook his head and began to calm himself. Thinking of Karou, while not in danger, was a soothing thought for him. Be a little more calm and gentle with is tone he looked up at Nightcrawler. "She shouldn't be here, but if she is…" Kenshin began, "I must see her." Saito rolled his eyes and put his sword back in its sheath.

"I'll be on my way then," Saito said. "I'll go and hunt for Shishio while you ladies do this to help keep your emotions in check."

"We won't be long, mein freund." Nightcrawler said, "Remember… I can teleport." Everyone grabbed hold of Nightcrawler, and as soon as he gave a smile and a wink to Saito, everyone had vanished.

Saito turned around and began to curse Kenshin. "I can't believe this fool! Something so incredibly important! His goal is mere yards away and he has to go and visit his girlfriend! If I ever get the chance to fight Kenshin again, I will make sure her remembers this day!" Saito began to lose focus on the task at hand himself as he began to get louder and louder. He turned a sharp corner and felt a long sharp blade enter his side and go up to his shoulder.

"Sorry Saito," Sojiro apologized, "but I think I may have just ruined that reunion fight between you and Kenshin." Sojiro spun his blade around the base of Saito's shoulder and then kicked him off of his blade. Saito stared at Sojiro in disbelief. His face was a complete definition of shock. "Don't look at me like that Saito," Sojiro said with a chuckle, "it's a little creepy and sort ruins the kill for me." Saito looked at his wound and put his hand over the opening. He looked at his hand and saw only blood. Saito made a tight grip with the hand covered in blood. He rolled over to his shoulder to grab Sojiro's ankle. He pulled himself closer to Sojiro. Sojiro just watched the limp, frail body with the same curiosity as a cat watching a mouse. Sojiro watched Saito hand go for his sword. "You are making this an awkward situation for me Saito," Sojiro grabbed his own sword again and lifted it into the air. A quick swing and only Saito's scream could be heard to those who were near. His arm, which had reached for his sword, lay next to him. "Please, don't try anything else; it will be easier for me this way." Saito, unable to give up, rolled to his other side and tried to grab his sword with his other arm. Sojiro swung his sword again, but this time there was no scream. Sojiro sheathed his blade and began to walk away. Saito had been slain nearly head to toe. His parts lay strewn about the hall as Sojiro had decidedly made his first kill.

Sojiro's stern look turned back to a smile as if his mind had released any sort of bad feelings he could have felt otherwise. "I could've sworn I heard more people over here earlier."

"They must be going back to the girls." A voice that could only be Shishio replied. The burned and bandaged man put his hand on Sojiro's shoulder. "We will see if Anji reports back. I sent him out to watch the girls. He may be too late to slay them, but we will see if he can grab any stragglers like Saito."

"Do you think maybe we should see if we could ambush them?" Sojiro asked.

"No Sojiro, it is not a bad idea, but we might still be able to use some of them. Let's continue to put a scare in them. They may still turn to our side." Shishio finished up with Sojiro and began to walk into the shadows.

On the other side of the castle, our heroes were completely unaware of Saito's murder. Kenshin and Karou were finally able to hold each other again, but Kenshin knew that this was only too bittersweet.

"You need to get out of here Miss Karou; it is not safe for you here." Kenshin pleaded.

"I know…I just…I needed to…to see you…one more time…" Karou wept as she began to show her vulnerability again. Sano rolled his eyes and stepped out of the room. Kenshin grabbed her as she put her head into his shoulder. He tried to soothe her by petting the back of her head, but this only fueled her fear for her one true love's life.

"Karou, you know how much you mean to me, but this is no place for you. You need to get out of here." Kenshin said to Karou again. She pushed her head slowly back from Kenshin's shoulder.

"No…" Karou said quietly. She looked Kenshin in the eyes and said it again; "no."

Kenshin looked at Karou for a second and then over at Nightcrawler. He nodded at Nightcrawler to come over. Nightcrawler looked up at Kenshin with a puzzling confusion. Kenshin nodded again.

"You don't get it Kenshin! I love you! I'm here to fight for you! I'm here…for you!" Karou yelled. Nightcrawler moved closer towards Karou and he looked at Marty and Doc. He gave a nod towards them. "How could you do this? I feel like I mean nothing to you!" Karou screamed.

"You know it's not like that. I do it to protect you, to keep you safe." Kenshin said, trying to calm her down.

"What about my feelings? When do they start to count?" Karou continued. Marty knelt next to her and put his hand on Misao. Doc put his hand on Marty's shoulder. Karou looked down at Marty and over at Doc. Then she felt Nightcrawler's hand touch her own shoulder. She turned to look at Nightcrawler who could only give her a sad apologetic look. She turned to Kenshin and began to scream, "NO!" She reached out for Kenshin while screaming, but just as she was about to make contact, she was gone. Tears began to stream down her face. She turned to Nightcrawler and screamed again, "How could you?" Nightcrawler's face only grew to be more ashamed. Nightcrawler opened his mouth to answer, but couldn't say anything. Karou turned away from Nightcrawler leaving Nightcrawler looking at only Doc and Marty.

"What now?" Marty asked. Nightcrawler looked directly at Marty for a second and then back at Doc.

"We need to get back home. We need to make sure there is a way." Nightcrawler answered.

Doc stepped forward to speak, "We need you to do the testing, Kurt."

"I know…I need to find Logan…" Nightcrawler said, still trying to figure things out.

"Jeez, I forgot all about him for a second," said Marty.

"I'll be back in a little bit guys," Nightcrawler said, preparing to teleport again. Doc stepped forward again.

"You should probably know…" Doc started, but then began to rethink saying anything at all.

"What?" Nightcrawler asked.

"Well, the mutant Ampliphier…" Doc started again.

"What about it?" Nightcrawler turned to Doc.

"It sort of isn't running on anything but a rechargeable battery…trying to go green…" Doc replied.

"So…" Nightcrawler said, starting to get the gist of what Doc is getting to.

"Well, it needs to be recharged for it to be used on a daily basis. And to be honest...well…the easiest way to explain is that it sort of works like an IPod."

"So you're saying we only have a limited time to find Logan and get back home…" Nightcrawler said, finishing Doc's thought.

"Well…yes." Doc said with a smile, trying to ease the frustration.

"Alright, so at least while I'm going into this situation without a plan, I do know that I only have a small amount of time do it. So what are we talking here? Six, seven hours?" Nightcrawler asked.

"Based on my calculations…we may be looking at…" Doc said, working the math in his head, "maybe forty five minutes."

"WHAT!" Marty yelled. "Doc, what the hell is goin on here? When were you planning on telling someone?"

"All in good time Marty, I didn't want to worry anyone," replied Doc.

"Yeah, you didn't want to put us in a situation like that..." Marty said sarcastically.

"Can you get us more time Doc?" asked Nightcrawler.

"Like I said; we would need an outlet with a USB port so that I could plug it in and charge it," Doc answered. "I mean, if there was a water wheel that could generate some power for us, and had a plug, it could give us maybe an extra half hour. It wouldn't be able to charge it back up…but it may be able to slow down the energy drainage."

"Can you make an outlet for us, Doc?" Nightcrawler asked, wondering why he needed to.

"If I knew where I could find some parts…no, there's no way. I just don't think it can be done…" Doc said somberly.

"You're asking the wrong question Kurt," Marty said, looking at Nightcrawler and then back to Doc. "Can you invent one for us?"

"Well, let's see…if I could somehow connect this thing to the generator without actually using the same port, maybe we could run the energy to the port through a different means…" Doc looked up and saw both Nightcrawler and Marty staring at him, waiting for an answer. "It's worth a shot." Nightcrawler threw his arms in the air in frustration wondering why Doc couldn't just look at the situation that way to begin with.

"Okay, you guys get us as much time as possible," Nightcrawler said, designing his plan, "I'll take everyone back to the city and then completely wipe myself out teleporting back here."

The plan was set and then put into motion. Nightcrawler took the whole group back to where they started and said his goodbyes and received his "good-lucks". Nightcrawler went back over to Karou before he left. He tapped her on the shoulder, "are you ready?" She looked up at Nightcrawler, completely confused. "Come on. I'm doing the same thing you are. Anything I can to help a friend in need." Karou, with a smile, placed her hand in Nightcrawler's. Marty and Doc both looked at each other and smiled. They continued to work, while Karou and Nightcrawler teleported back to the castle.

Back at the castle, Kenshin and Sano went back to the long hallway, where they had left Saito, to hopefully catch up with him before he got into any trouble. The two ran through the castle keeping their heads on a swivel.

"It's good to be back by your side Sano," Kenshin told Sano as they continued to run.

"I hear that Kenshin! Good to be back!" Sano said with a smile.

Kenshin continued to keep pace with Sano and the two came to a fork in the road. "What do you think?"

"I can handle myself, let's split up," Sano assured Kenshin.

"Are you sure?" Kenshin asked, now smiling back at Sano.

"Oh yeah! Watch this!" Sano said, rather excitedly. He grabbed a rock nearby and placed in into the center of his hand. Sano went into a deep focus for a few seconds and then gritted his teeth. Sano balled up his fist and struck the rock in his hand. With two strikes, occurring faster than a split second, the rock had been pulverized and turned to dust. The strike was so powerful that the hit caused a small tremor underneath Kenshin's feet.

"Wow! Very impressive Sano!" Kenshin marveled at the pure strength of Sano's punch.

"Yeah, it just took me one day to learn it. It was a lot of work, but I feel so much stronger because of it." Sano said as he cleaned the dust off of his hands. The two were about to go their separate ways when Kenshin stepped back for a second.

"Where did you learn that technique?" Kenshin asked.

"From me!" A loud voice yelled from behind the two men.

"Anji! How are you doing you big lug? Packin' on some weight I see," Sano said while patting Anji's belly.

Kenshin grabbed Sano by the shoulder, "Sano, this is…"

"Anji, I know. He's my buddy! And the guy who taught me my new technique. By the way big guy, what are you yelling for? It's not like this castle isn't creepy enough…" Sano put his thumb out and looked back to Kenshin. He swung his thumb back at Anji pointing at him, to show Kenshin their camaraderie.

"You still don't understand what is going on here, do you…?" Anji asked.

"Hey, what are you doing here anyway Anji?" Sano replied with a question.

Kenshin tried to warn Sano again, "Sano, I don't think you should be…"

Anji replied to Sano while interrupting Kenshin, "Here, let me show you!" Sano turned to Kenshin to listen to what he was saying. At the same time, Anji reared back to deliver a blow to Sano. As the fist got closer to Sano's gut, Kenshin's face almost turned white as Sano had no idea the hit was coming. Sano realized he was looking at a Kenshin face he had never seen before. As the half second between the punch connecting Sano gave it his best effort to turn his head, but it was too late. Anji made the connection, obliterating Sano and whipping him across the room. Anji was surprised to find the only thing he could hear as he turned his attention to Kenshin was a loud painful laughter. Anji turned his head back at Sano to see he was the one laughing.

"I really thought for a second there, that was gonna be the last time I take a hit," Sano admitted, "but then I realized I had forgotten that Logan, my new buddy, gave me a present earlier this week. Something called body armor. It's pretty heavy, but I guess it did the trick." Anji just stared in disbelief as Sano stood up and began to wipe dirt off of his shirt. He flashed the body armor to Anji which made Anji take a look at his hand. "It looks like your hand took the brunt of that blow." Anji, being as strong as he is, didn't even notice the break that was caused by the punch to Sano's armor. Anji's hand was rendered completely unusable.

"It's okay. I still have another hand, and you still have a head I can aim for," Anji warned.

"Yeah, but now I'll be ready for it," Sano replied, "Go find Shishio, Kenshin. I've got this!"

Kenshin didn't bother with asking Sano if he was sure. He gave Sano a nod and started to head down the hallway. He could hear Sano and Anji start to fight, but knew Sano was doing what he needed to do to help Kenshin reach Shishio. He needed help. He just wishes he had accepted it earlier.

Kenshin didn't know where to look, but knew he just had to keep running. He finally saw a light, down the hallway. He started to speed up as he got closer and closer to the door hiding the light. He kicked the door down, but did not find Shishio. A boy stood in the room with his sword at the ready.

"Hello Kenshin! How are you doing today?" Sojiro asked. "If you're looking for your friend, you can stop now, I…cut him loose from any sort of liability he had with your mission." Sojiro pointed to his new trophy on one of his shelves. Kenshin saw the head and took a step forward to let his eyes make sure they knew what they were looking at.

"I don't have time for this, boy!" Kenshin yelled. "Who are you? Why did you do this?"

"Why did I do this?" Sojiro asked, "To help Shishio of course. Now I am presenting myself to you, to make Shishio's rule even easier by defeating you. If you have a problem with that, well…I don't know what to say…" Sojiro stopped talking for a second and just smiled at Kenshin.

Kenshin stared back, gripping his sword tighter and tighter. He raised his blade to be even with his ears. Bringing his elbows back behind his head, Kenshin kept the sword pointed at Sojiro. "I don't have time for this. You don't know what Shishio is capable of boy. Even as you follow him now, you are in danger. That man…that thing is clever, and won't stop before his own needs and wants. If you become a problem…you will die…"

"I'm afraid you don't know what I'm capable of Kenshin…this is bigger than you, bigger than me, bigger than Shishio. What he wants with this world does scare me, but that's why I chose his side…that's why he chose me. You think I'm a distraction, a bump in the road, a small obstacle…you'll see…you'll see my strength…speed...you will lose to me! If Saito was even half the fighter you were, this will prove to be one of my finest moments."

"Are you done talkin' yet, bub?" Wolverine walked out of a shadowed corner. He let his claws out with a sharp, quick, "snikt". "I'm aiming to keep the promise I made to you, bub!" Wolverine continued to walk towards Sojiro, with his apparent rage growing. "I told you, you piece of scum, that I was gonna rip you to shreds if you lied to me. And guess what? You lied to me!" Wolverine began to snarl and grit his teeth as hard as he could. He began to yell and fall into a berserker fury. He flexed his arms once more and looked to Kenshin. "Get the hell outta here! Go find that burned up freak!"

Kenshin gave a nod to Wolverine and quickly sheathed his sword. Kenshin turned and ran out the door. Sojiro made a sudden move towards the door, but didn't catch Wolverine off guard in the slightest. He caught Sojiro and threw him back against the far wall. "Where do you think you're going, bub?" Sojiro readied his sword, to fend off Wolverine. "I heard you talkin' to my boy Kenshin, there. Actin' like you're all kinds of bad…you ain't anything! I've been watchin' you…you little punk…I saw you kill Kenshin's buddy. Didn't even have the guts to face him, eye to eye…" Wolverine got closer to Sojiro still with arms at the ready. Sojiro grabbed his sword a little tighter. "Come on…what are you gonna do? Give me a little scratch? Go ahead," Wolverine put his arms down and lifted his head to reveal his neck, "go for the kill kid!"

Sojiro gritted his teeth and changed hands with his sword. Swinging his left arm out, he got a touch of Wolverine's neck. He kept the arm moving as fast and as hard as possible. He tore through the skin, tearing tendons and veins, eventually reaching the neck's bone. The sword stopped. Not realizing that Wolverine's entire skeleton was covered by the adamantium, Sojiro pulled his sword out and stood up. He stood in disbelief watching Wolverine's wound heal in mere seconds. "Gotta do better than that," Wolverine warned. "My turn!" Wolverine began to swing at Sojiro causing the boy to rear his sword up in defense. The first swing glanced off of Sojiro's sword while the second caught the sword from another angle. Sojiro's wrists tightened to brace for the hit, but suddenly he felt a release of tension on his arms. He began to realize Wolverine had swung right through his sword. It now lay in pieces before him, scattered across the floor. Sojiro's face turned white.

"Now, I wanna ask you a question, little guy. And I fully expect to get a response, or there will be consequences." Wolverine pulled the boy under his arm, as if they were buddies. "A few days ago, you made a promise to me. You said that you were giving me a straight answer. You were a straight shooter. Now you put me in a position where I promised you something and now I need to act on that promise." Wolverine through the boys head into a wall. Sojiro laid on the floor gritting his teeth. "What was that promise, that I told you I had to keep?"

Sojiro looked up at Wolverine for a second. Holding his head and without a weapon, the boy began to weep. "You said you would tear me apart, limb from limb." Wolverine looked down at the boy, feeling a little shocked that the boy actually answered.

"Now I know your group killed Yahiko, maimed Misao, I watched you kill Kenshin's buddy," Wolverine said, "but I'm not like you." Wolverine sheathed his claws and began to walk away. Sojiro looked around and felt his chest. He realized he was okay. Sojiro picked up another sword across the room and glared at Wolverine. "And don't think about doing what you're thinkin' about doing." Sojiro continued his motion toward Wolverine. "What are you doin' kid?" Wolverine kept his back turned away from Sojiro as he continued to inch forward. Wolverine stopped walking and Sojiro let out a shout. A hard and heavy push right through Wolverine's gut placed Sojiro against Wolverine's back. Wolverine looked down at the blade and then fell to his knees. Wolverine slumped over and began to bleed on the floor.

"Never turn your back on your opponent," Sojiro exclaimed, "one of the first things I learned when I trained with my sword." Sojiro taunted Wolverine as he spun around and paced the room. "This is why a trained swordsman is always better than the lethal warrior…" Sojiro turned back to Wolverine and saw the bloodied beast standing before him.

"Maybe you should be taking your own advice!" Wolverine said following that up by lunging towards Sojiro. Sojiro lifted his sword and deflected a few swings by Wolverine. He jumped up to a table and leaped over Wolverine. He swung his sword as he landed on the ground only to be caught by Wolverine. His swing hit Wolverine's claws and he angled his blade so not to break another sword. He popped off of Wolverine's claws and came around underneath Wolverine. Wolverine countered this attack too. Sojiro was beginning to realize that Wolverine had the upper hand. He took a few steps backward while swinging his sword. The attack was futile as Wolverine deflected it away, just like the rest. Wolverine stood tall and confident as he stalked Sojiro and inched closer to him. Sojiro made one last swing which Wolverine knocked away and then followed up with an attack. He swung both of his claws around the sword and the clipped the sword right in the middle. He dropped the broken blade, just like the last one. Sojiro looked behind him at the open door and thought about running.

Sojiro took one step towards the door and then felt a sharp pain from behind. "That's twice you didn't follow your own advice." Wolverine took his claws out and watched Sojiro's blood begin to fall in the puddle Wolverine had created. "Well, I can't trust you kid," Wolverine said as he made a swipe at Sojiro. A slice to Sojiro's throat finally put an end to the poor boy. Wolverine cleaned the blood off of his claws and pulled them back into his arm.

As Wolverine finished cleaning up his mess with Sojiro, he turned his eyes down the long hallway he watched Kenshin run down a dozen minutes earlier. Wolverine sniffed the air twice and gave his shoulders a shrug as if to give his body a chance to reset. He let a large puff of air and was headed off down the hallway.

In the other direction of that long hallway a battle was reaching its end. Sano and Anji were throwing their fists as if it were clouds dropping rain. Sano had the advantage now that Anji has just broken his hand, but Anji was the man with all of the experience. Sano was able to leave his midsection completely exposed, due to his new body armor supplied by Logan. Sano was known for his stubborn nature when fighting. He always went at 100% and always went the offense first instead of defending himself. With Sano's new body armor, he was free to fight with this philosophy and not be afraid to ruin his body.

As the two continued to battle, their battle became more destructive. After fighting for a while, most of the hallway had been destroyed. Tables and chairs are crushed, walls broken through, and parts of the floor were falling to the level underneath.

"You gonna be able to take much more, big guy?" Sano snidely asked.

"Should I be asking that to your new chest plate?" Anji replied with as he continued to gather himself. The two men stood a few feet apart, catching their breath. Sano adjusted his body armor and wiped his mouth. A steady thin stream of blood was following Sano's chin. With either man still yet to land a clean blow, the two began to weigh out the opposing fighter as if they were both waiting for the other to continue the fight. "You do realize that I am breaking through your chest plate, right?"

"That's impossible, I'm doing fine." Sano said checking the plate again.

"You know it's only a matter of time Sano. Give up…the second I break through that thing, you're dead. There is no way you can take the power of my punches. It's not like I haven't realized that my punches still have an effect on you. Your body is crumbing inside…we must stop this."

"It's not like I'm not able to say the same thing about you," Sano began, "Sure, you have a better technique, but I've twice the amount of hands you have. I get one more good punch and I'm walking away from this Scott free." The two men got into fighting stances.

"I guess we have one thing left to do…" Anji said gritting his teeth afterward.

"It's been nice knowing ya, Anji…" Sano squeezed his fists and charged at Anji. Anji did the same and charged back at Sano. The two men landed their best punches as Sano continued to work all of Anji's body, while Anji continued his controlled one handed bursts on Sano's body armor. The two men couldn't stop their punches. They continued to pummel each other knowing that one of them was not going to walk away from this. Sano could feel his body armor beginning to split. Sano tried to ignore it while he worked Anji around. Anji took a few punches to the head and for the first time in this battle shut his eyes. He felt his head get heavy and lose its balance. Anji let the thought of this next punch being his last creep into his head. Sano continued to push through his own pain as the body armor started to pierce his skin. Anji's punches began to slow. He let out a loud roar as he reared back one last time. His arm started to inch forward. Sano never stopped swinging and landed one, two, three punches. Anji's arm moving as fast as it could came within centimeters from Sano's chest before Sano landed his fourth punch in a row, right to the temple of Anji. Anji's arm fell limp as he lost consciousness. Sano was so focused that he still continued his onslaught a few seconds after Anji hit the ground. He came back to his senses as he stood over Anji's body. Sano kept panting.

"I guess that body armor worked out pretty good." Wolverine hiding in a corner came out of the shadows to help Sano to his feet.

"You have no idea man…" Sano pushed off against his knee as Wolverine grabbed one of his arms to get him up quicker. Sano doubled over and began to cough. A little bit of blood fell onto his hand. "I guess Anji really was pretty close to putting me away.

"I'd have ripped his god damn head off if he did," Wolverine replied patting Sano on the back. "Come on, we gotta go find Kenshin."

"You are in for a treat my friend. He is one of the best fighters I have ever seen." Sano said trying to limp with Wolverine. They took a few more steps as Sano turned to look at Wolverine for a second. "Thanks man."

"For what?" Wolverine asked.

"Not interfering," Sano said.

"Don't sweat it. Besides, I just got the pleasure of beating Sojiro…" Wolverine said with a hint of a chuckle.

"You lucky bastard!" Sano yelled, "I knew he was a bad guy! Man, I was so sick of that punk…"

"Yeah, well…" Wolverine and Sano walked for a bit in silence. "Do you know which way we should go?"

"No clue, but I know Kenshin went this way…" Sano grabbed his side as he finished speaking with Wolverine. The two fighters headed towards Kenshin's direction.

A little farther ahead down the hall stood Kenshin. In front of a beautifully carved wooden door, Kenshin gathered himself and prepared his mind for battle. Kenshin pushed the door open and was immediately greeted by Shishio.

"Hello Kenshin. It's been a long time since we last saw each other. You were just stepping down as the man slayer, while I was just beginning to rise up."

"Better not let those egos get your head Shishio. Don't want it to burn you out." Kenshin said, mocking Shishio and his badly burned and bandaged body.

"You will pay for your insolence Kenshin! While the world waits, your day of reckoning will be today!" Shishio pulled out his sword as he finished taunting Kenshin. Kenshin took a step forward and pulled out his reverse blade sword. Kenshin used the sword to combat his fleeting feelings for death. Kenshin vowed to never kill again and used this as his easiest means to avoid that. The reverse blade made Kenshin's sword more of a blunt piece of weaponry, but was still yet to lose while using the blade.

"Words are cheap Shishio, your reign of terror ends today!" Kenshin gripped his sword as tight as he could. Shishio stood above a flight of stairs and in the middle of a platform. Kenshin started running up the stairs with his blade at the ready. Kenshin began to yell, letting out a battle cry as he ran closer to Shishio. The platform, which had another narrow entrance, had two of Shishio's henchmen standing on either side. Kenshin could not see the men but blocked both of their attacks as he ran through the door. He bashed both of the men on the head with his blade and knocked them both to the floor. Shishio charged on Kenshin and began to release a flurry of attacks. Kenshin knocked them all away giving Kenshin the moments he needed to start his own attack. One swing after another led Kenshin to get the upper hand on Shishio.

Kenshin began to release his own flurry of swings as he pounded Shishio as he tried to block one swing after the other. Shishio's grip on his sword began to loosen. The sword was now taking swings that only a lumberjack could be proud of. One after the other, Shishio began to lose a hold of his sword, as Kenshin began to lose a hold of his sanity.

"Kenshin…" Shishio whispered as he continued to take his beating. Shishio finally lost his grip on the sword as it plummeted from his hand to the ground he sat on. Shishio put his hand out to stop Kenshin but Kenshin was lost in his new rage. The beating continued and Shishio continued to plea for help. A moment he never thought would come: A moment where another man stood above him, unrelenting, powerful, smarter, without mercy. Kenshin finally stopped his vicious assault of Shishio. He stood panting above Shishio as his heart began to pound in his chest. He felt alive again. All of these years of suppressed emotion were finally on his sleeve.

Kenshin turned the blade over in his hand and reared the blade back to make the kill.

"Kenshin, wait!" A voice yelled from behind Kenshin. Kenshin turned with a furrowed brow and anger in his eyes. Aoshi stood behind Kenshin with his Kodachi blades unsheathed. "Don't waste your first spilling of blood on this poor fool.

Kenshin turned to Aoshi, "You'd rather I wasted it on you?"

"I've been watching you Kenshin. Waiting…for you to finally arrive," Aoshi started. He took a few steps closer to Kenshin and prepared himself for battle.

"I knew you were there Aoshi…I figured killing Shishio might actually bring you out of your hiding spot."

Aoshi began to grow tired of this new Kenshin already. "You will finally reach your end!"

"That sounds familiar…" Kenshin rushed at Aoshi while finishing his statement. He swung his blade at Aoshi's gut forcing Aoshi to jump back a few times avoiding each of Kenshin's swings. Aoshi finally countered and swiped Kenshin's shoulder, but visually not able to handicap Kenshin at all. Kenshin continued his same approach ignoring any attacks landing on his body. Aoshi was stunned to have run into such a visceral attack. Aoshi jumped over Kenshin and tried his Double Kodachi approach to give himself the opportunity to attack twice before Kenshin could throw in a rebuttal. The attack worked, but Kenshin was still yet to recognize anything that landed on his body. Kenshin continued to bleed but never let up on his attack.

While Kenshin continued his barrage on Aoshi, Shishio stood up behind the fight and came sneaking in to attack Kenshin. Kenshin caught Shishio out of the corner of his eye and countered the attack. He finally landed his sword in Shishio's gut. He pulled it out and countered Aoshi's second attempt at the Double Kodachi. Kenshin used his own sword and the one of the fallen Shishio to counter both swings from Aoshi. The second swing broke one of Aoshi's blades leaving his with a shattered stump of a sword.

"Well, I spilled some blood Aoshi, so you get the honor of being the second person I kill…" Kenshin taunted.

Aoshi threw his broken Kodachi blade across the platform of which they were battling. "I'm not going down without a fight." Kenshin gave Aoshi a second to gather himself. Aoshi threw the other Kodachi blade across the platform. Kenshin, a little surprised, turn one eyebrow up in confusion.

"You're only making it easier for me Aoshi…" Kenshin shouted.

Without responding to Kenshin, Aoshi only gave Kenshin a smile as he slowly pulled out his other regular length sword. He ran his fingers across the blade and readied it for an attack. Kenshin's face turned from amusement to anger. He grits his teeth again and started to charge at Aoshi. Aoshi returned the action and made his own charge. Aoshi and Kenshin were inches from Colliding when Nightcrawler teleported to the platform with Karou. Kenshin's jaw dropped and he lost his concentration for a moment. Aoshi saw an opening and avoided Kenshin's attack and sliced Kenshin across the back. Kenshin screamed and fell to the ground. Shishio stood up and took his sword back from Kenshin.

"Let's finish this fool." Shishio yelled. Shishio brought his sword back and began his swing to finally defeat Kenshin. The tables had never turned so quickly as Kenshin looked Karou in the eye as she started to run towards Kenshin. Wolverine and Sano both walked into the Palace's platform to see the battle. Sano saw Shishio's sword coming down, "…no…". Wolverine looked up and saw the end of Kenshin coming as well. The sword was inching closer to his neck. The entire sword swings and attack from the past weeks had all come down to this. Shishio's battle with Kenshin had come down to a technicality which forced Shishio to gain the upper hand. Kenshin reached his arm out for Karou and began to smile at her. He knew what he had done in losing his grasp with sanity, was wrong. Karou reached out her hand and smiled back at Kenshin. The blade was closer and closer and even closer.

The blade was about to pierce Kenshin's neck when all of a sudden it stopped. A strong blade lay underneath Shishio's and a white glove connected to a blue man stood before him. Nightcrawler pushed the blade up and away from Kenshin. "Nice try, but let's even up the odds a bit, eh?" Aoshi and Shishio both charged Nightcrawler, but his ability to teleport made it as if they were facing multiple opponents. Nightcrawler gave the two swordsmen a heavy dose of confusion; not even letting his feet hit the ground for more than a second.

Karou ran over to Kenshin to help him up. Kenshin was already on one knee eyeing Nightcrawler's battle. He tried to get up to help, but Karou tried to hold him down. "I need to help Kurt!" Kenshin said pushing out every ounce of energy. Karou continued to weep as she tried to pull Kenshin back. Kenshin felt a hand on his shoulder. Wolverine and Sano stood next to him.

"Sit here with Karou, we've got this." Sano reassured Kenshin. Kenshin looked up at Sano and watched as the two men ran over to Nightcrawler's aid. Nightcrawler continued to deflect the attacks of both Aoshi and Shishio. He began to have more fun than maybe he should've been. Nightcrawler began to let out some good belly laughs as he continued to randomly teleport from one side of the two swordsmen to the other. Sano and Wolverine ran up to Aoshi to leave Nightcrawler alone with Shishio. Aoshi laughed and scoffed, "Do you really think you can stand up to the likes of me Sano?"

"No, but I think my friend here may be able to." Sano replied. Aoshi's got his concentration back and grunted. He moved forward to attack Sano but Wolverine stepped in the way to stop Aoshi's swing. He cut the blade right on his claws and sliced right through the sword. Aoshi dropped his blade and stared at Wolverine with complete and utter astonishment.

"This looks familiar…" Wolverine joked. He looked to Sano with his arm raised. Sano shook his head to "no" to say not to kill Aoshi. Wolverine and Sano tied Aoshi up and walked over to watch Nightcrawler. He was still laughing away as each swipe from Shishio's blade was another waste. Nightcrawler jumped over Shishio and pushed him away. He bopped Shishio on the head with the blunt side of the blade as he continued to taunt the villain.

Shishio finally stopped and dropped his sword. "Well, that was easy!" Nightcrawler exclaimed.

"Shut up, you freak!" Shishio screamed, "you're all freaks! I would have beaten you…I would've won…I…" Shishio dropped to his knees and began to peel his bandages off of his skin.

"Ewwww…" Sano said.

"I just wanted to feel the sun one last time…" Shishio revealed as he took his fallen sword up again and slit his own throat. All of the fighters put a hand out as if to try and stop him, but it was too late. Shishio lay slain by his own hands. Too frustrated to live in a world that he would not be able to rule, he gave up and gave in.

"Let me go!" Aoshi yelled. "This wasn't about killing any of you! This was about me getting an opportunity to prove I'm better than Kenshin!"

"Yeah…but then you went ahead and double teamed Kenshin with Shishio…" Sano replied, "kind of crappy if you ask me…"

"Plus, we wanted to see how calm you would be before we told you that someone was looking for you." Nightcrawler said crouching next to Aoshi.

"I know, it's Misao," Aoshi replied, "I stopped Shishio from killing her earlier. I just got lost in my blind rage to defeat Kenshin, I didn't really stop and think who I was working with."

"I think I can believe that," Nightcrawler confessed, "would you like to see her?"

"Of course."

"Well, this is probably gonna kill me, but let's all grab on and get back to Marty and Doc." With that, everyone put a hand on top of Nightcrawler as he was about to strain himself more than he has ever been strained before.

The group appeared in front of Marty and Doc Brown completely intact. Aoshi immediately ran over to Misao was feeling much better. The long embrace sort of gave everyone an opportunity to release the tension in their heads. All members of the group were still a little worried about Aoshi's intentions. Nightcrawler walked up to Marty and Doc.

"How did the USB invention go?" Nightcrawler asked.

"See for yourself!" Doc said with a smile. Nightcrawler peered over Doc's shoulder to see a massive contraption connected to a water wheel.

"How much time did that give us?" Nightcrawler asked.

"10 maybe 20 extra seconds," Doc said with a smile since he was still proud of his newest invention.

"You can't really generate too much power from these old water wheels," Marty said.

"Then that gives us…" Nightcrawler said, urging the two to hurry up.

"About five minutes." Doc said, still admiring his creation.

"And ten seconds," Marty joked.

Wolverine walked up to the congregation of men, "what's going on here?"

"The time machine is broken…" Nightcrawler answered rather dryly.

"Figures…what's the plan then?" Wolverine inquired.

"We're going to use the mutant amplifier! Nightcrawler is going to help us teleport through time!" Doc said with even more excitement than before.

"Is that gonna work?" Wolverine asked Doc and Marty.

"We don't know yet…" Nightcrawler answered. Wolverine turned to Nightcrawler when he was spoken to.

"I guess we have enough to bid farewell to our friends and fellow travelers," Doc stated, "but we must be quick. Gentlemen, ladies, guy who I just met, I bid you all adieu!"

Doc Brown grabbed his things and started to stuff them into the Time Machine. Marty shook hands with Sano and gave sort of a general wave to everyone who was left. Marty then turned to Doc and began strapping everything to the roof of the time machine.

Nightcrawler walked over to Aoshi and Misao to say his goodbyes.

"That was a hell of a fight you gave us," Aoshi said to Nightcrawler while keeping most of his focus on Misao.

"How is she doing?" Nightcrawler asked.

"I'm okay Kurt," Misao answered, covering her mouth afterwards as she coughed. "You guys fought too? From the sound of it, he beat us both pretty good."

"That doesn't matter right now. You need to get your rest Misao," Nightcrawler said handing Aoshi a wet rag to put on her forehead.

Nightcrawler started to walk away, after waving bye to Misao, but was stopped by Aoshi. "We would love for you to stay. Be a part of the OniWaBan. We've always accepted and wanted people like you."

Nightcrawler looked at Aoshi and smiled, "people…it's been a long time since someone referred to me in the same light as 'people'". Nightcrawler looked back to the Time Machine and Wolverine. "Look, I'm not gonna be able to stay. I have too many obligations back home…but I'm not going to say bye forever…" Aoshi and Misao smiled at the news. Nightcrawler shook Aoshi's hand and turned back to Wolverine, Kenshin, Sano, and Karou. Wolverine was saying bye to Karou and accepted a strong hug from her. Nightcrawler walked up and gave Karou a smile. She jumped on Nightcrawler and gave him a big kiss.

"Thank You so much Kurt!" Karou said, beginning to cry, "You helped keep me happy and gave me something no one had given me before…a chance to speak my mind."

"I'm here to help."

"Just…I…wanted you to know how much you mean to me. How much I…well…just…Thank you." She grabbed Nightcrawler's hand as tight as possible and the two slowly pulled apart from each other. Wolverine shook Sano's hand as the two tough guys shared a not so tough moment. Karou walked back over to Kenshin as Nightcrawler and Wolverine both stood in front of the man they did all of this for.

"I appreciate your help guys. I couldn't have done this without you…" Kenshin confessed, "I really need to start accepting help from friends. You guys really came to my rescue and because of that, I'm alive today…"

"Don't mention it mein freund, it's kind of our thing," said Nightcrawler.

"We got the answers that we wanted Ken, so thank you." Wolverine put his hand out to shake and felt Kenshin grab both himself and Nightcrawler for a big hug.

"I hope our paths cross one again," Kenshin told the two Xmen.

Nightcrawler and Wolverine turned away from the group and walked over to Marty and Doc Brown. "Well, let's aim for this time. I'm gonna turn on the Time Machine and place our return time just so we have a jumping off point."

"Let's hurry it up Doc, don't have all night…well, actually we have about thirty seconds." Marty told Doc.

Doc pulled out the mutant amplifier and turned it on. Nightcrawler grabbed hold of everyone again and saw time slow down again. All of a sudden time sped up again and they were still standing by Kenshin and the gang.

"What happened?" Doc asked.

"I don't know, I think I'm moving too much," answered Nightcrawler.

"Leave the car Doc, we gotta go," yelled Wolverine.

Doc shed a single tear and walked away from the car. The mutant amplifier was powered up once more and time slowed down. Nightcrawler saw everything around him turn pink and purple again as if his portal to teleport had stopped. He closed his eyes and thought of the time and place that he wanted to be. He pushed the thought through his brain with so much force, he began to grit his teeth and break a sweat. A loud clap and a wave of energy left the four men standing in Doc Brown's office in present day. Nightcrawler and Wolverine grabbed their things and started to walk away. They said their goodbyes and walked out of the Doc's workshop. Nightcrawler and Wolverine started heading down a street in Hill Valley when they saw a white flash in the sky. Nightcrawler and Wolverine turned to each other, followed by Doc and Marty running outside to see what the light was.

"It made it back! Eureka, it made it back!" Doc screamed as the Time machine landed in front of the men.

The car came to a screeching halt while it continued to smoke. The car, like usual, was incredibly cold. Nightcrawler walked up to the car, as it didn't move an inch. Nightcrawler grabbed the handle of the car and pulled its driver side door open. The door swung open and when Nightcrawler looked inside, his jaw dropped. Wolverine laughed and leaned up against a tree. Doc put his hands to his head and began to smile. Marty looked into the car with a half-smile and put his hands into his jeans. Nightcrawler reached out his hand and tried to help whoever was in the car out.

Thanks for reading. If enough people review this and like it, I may just create a sequel.


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